Legal spats between big names in the mobile world are always fun to watch. It’s always a bit of a giggle to see a mobile phone manufacturer throw the dolly out of the pram, and start kicking up a fuss. This time it’s the turn of Cupertino’s finest, Apple, and their baby, the iPhone, according to Digital Daily.
I’ll let Tim Cook, COO of Apple, describe the situation in his own words:
“We like competition, as long as they don’t rip off our IP, and if they do, we’re going to go after anybody that does….We will not stand for having our IP ripped off and we’ll use whatever weapons we have at our disposal [to make sure that doesn't happen]. I don’t know that I can be more clear than that.”
Ooh, that sounds like thinly-veiled fightin’ talk to me! The question is, though, who is he directing that barbed comment at? Well, it’s kind of convenient that it came just after the Palm Pre was announced, a phone that features multi-touch, , that pinchy motion that Apple fans love so much, and whose development was spearheaded by former Apple man, Jon Rubinstein. Reading between the lines, does that mean that Apple think Palm nicked their copyright from the iPhone, to make the Pre?
Well, when you look at the Palm Pre, there are some iPhone-esque qualities to the look of the interface, but beyond that, it’s hard to see what Apple are getting at (if they are indeed having a pop at Palm). The interface functions nothing like the one on the iPhone, running programs, apps and services in a completely different (and I’d say smarter) way. So, are Apple in fact (if, I say again, they are having a pop at the Palm Pre) saying that the fact you can use more than one finger on screen is their copyright, since it’s the only thing I can see that’s the same on both mobile phones? Hmmm, if so, that could get interesting, since I’d like to see the intellectual property involved in the concept of ‘pressing the screen in more than one place at the same time’.
What’s next, they sue the Nokia 5800 because it plays music?
Meanwhile, Palm’s reaction to all of this has been rather amusing, since it effectively seems to amount to “bring it on, wonderboy, we ain’t scared of you“. So is this really Apple lashing out at a phone that far outperforms theirs in every way, since they can’t do what they normally do, and say it’s rubbish…?
You be the judge!
Do you reckon Apple should sue Palm? Do you think they’d win if they did? Leave us a comment, and remember to subscribe to keep in the loop about whether Apple take it to the courts!