It seems that suing Apple is no longer just the sport of crazy chicks allegedly denied their dog-given right to resell iPhones at extortionist rates because Apple discounted them. Instead, we have crazy patent campers who think that 25 years after Apple pioneered the use of the GUI in personal computers, they’re entitled to license fees on a patent granted last March.
Join me in going totally off the deep end after the jump…
I know it’s tough out there with the economy and all, but one wonders if Cygnus Systems, Inc (of Arizona*) and its ‘president’ George Swartz has considered making and selling a product that people actually want to buy as a potential route to profitability.
Naaw”¦ it’s just easier to sue people”¦
It’s situations like this that make me wonder how much more quiet and peaceful the world would be if corporations were allowed to hire assassins as in some dark Gibson-esque future.
Fortunately Apple isn’t alone in this suit, also named are Microsoft and Google. Additionally, blood-sucking shyster** Matt McAndrews, of Niro, Scavone, Haller & Niro, has identified, “many other potentially infringing products that we’re investigating”.
Read: ‘Other companies with successful products whose profitability we can leach‘.
Of course the suit doesn’t cover the whole of the GUI, just the preview features seen in things like coverflow, OS X preview, Windows Explorer preview and the like. One must wonder, through, with all these companies (MS and Apple having sued each other, and subsequently buried the hatchet over GUI issues), all using some kind of “preview” feature, what kind of massive conspiracy there must be to deny mister Swartz his due.
Did all these companies witness some demo of Mr. Swartz’s ‘game changing’ product and subsequently decide to rip off the little guy? Is there some secret cabal in the Valley and Redmond?
It couldn’t have simply been convergent evolution, could it?
Only courts will decide that one. However, after having looked at the patent claim, I can clearly see one place where infringement is clearly taking place. Look carefully at the following illustration from the Cygnus patent application:
I see MS Paint, Excel, and Word, as well as the Windows 95 Graphical User Interface, the appearance of which are all Copyright Microsoft, and almost certainly used without permission.
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(*note: the Cygnus Systems that is plaintiff in the lawsuit does not appear to be the same Cygnus Systems of Taylor MI, named in other articles on this topic (and the one which comes up on Google searches). ‘Cygnus of MI’ has a different president and CEO and appears to be an actual company with employees and such, whereas ‘Cygnus of Arizona’ looks to be a front for independant consultant George Swartz
**’bloodsucking shyster’ is a technical term and shouldn’t be construed as a disparagement of Mr. McAndrews, who we’re confident is good person that regularly visits his grandmother; when he’s not busy chasing ambulances…)
Leigh McMullen leads the Advisory Services & Strategy practices for the professional services arm of one of the Big-Five firms. He has written several books that would cure any insomnia you might have, and is an avid Mac junkie.
