Apple asks for dismissal of iPod lawsuit
updated 09:30 am EDT, Wed September 19, 2007
Apple vs. Burst: dismissal
Apple has asked the judge presiding in a patent infringement case, filed by Burst.com, to throw out the claims entirely. Burst first filed suit against Apple in 2006, charging that the latter stole patents for compressing, storing and distributing media at high speeds over a network. This in turn was a response to a reverse suit by Apple, which Burst argues was begun only when negotiations broke down over licensing patents for use in Apple's iTunes software and the iPod. Previously, Burst had managed to settle a 2005 lawsuit against Microsoft for $60 million.
The heart of Apple's dismissal plea lies in an April ruling of the US Supreme Court, which states that patents which are obvious and expected changes should be rejected. Burst, says Apple lawyer Matthew Powers, simply combined previous inventions -- legally termed "prior art" -- and labelled them new.
"It's not some epiphanous, oh my God, when you put all these things together you have an iPod," Powers told judge Marilyn Patel in a US District Court. "That is what they are trying to do to save the core, which is obviously all in the prior art. None of which is invented by [Burst founder] Mr. Lang."
dsimissal
09/19, 09:49am reply
You mean "dismissal"? Yes, very professional, as ever....
Grrr
Grizzled Veteran
Joined: Jun 2001
MACNN !!
09/19, 09:52am reply
Is this how we spell dismissal ?
DSIMISSAL
Did anyone at MacNN ever learn to read and write ?
UberFu
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 2002
as far as...
09/19, 09:57am reply
the article goes - how does one actually steal a Patent ?
Do you go and break into the Patent Office and replace the files with forged documents all the while having a hacker log into the website and update the content there ?
So this way anyone looks at the hard copies or the electronic files it says APPLE instead of BURST_
Then the only evidence BURST has is their own copies of the documents that mysteriously disappeared so as to make them look the fool ?
Interesting_
UberFu
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Joined: Oct 2002
uberfu
09/19, 12:05pm reply
Hey, maybe MacNN will clean up its act once you realize '_' characters are not intended to end sentences/paragraphs. That's what the period ('.') is for (its on the bottom of your keyboard, right next to the '?' character).
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
ouch
09/19, 08:08pm reply
Getting testy in here... but what about this patent issue? $60 million... that's a lot of change.
doncraig1
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2006
Nonsense...
09/19, 09:33pm reply
buffering data over a network to give smoother playback? Haven't buffers been built into network card/devices forever? Haven't video apps developers used 'double buffering' since screens were drawn in pixels to prevent tearing? I wrote this kind of code as a kid in the early 80s!!
McD
McDave
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Joined: Jun 2006