Could HTC be the only Android phone maker soon?

[mike123abc]

http://www.dailytech.com/Apple+Pate...+Allows+Ban+on+Most+Androids/article33580.htm

Apple's multitouch patent upheld after reexamination by the patent office.

Now one Android OEM -- HTC Corp. -- is safe, as Apple agreed to a licensing pact with it. It was generally perceived that Apple agreed to this deal as it perceived HTC as a nonthreat (unlike Samsung), but the move could prove a boost if the other Android OEMs are banned from the U.S. market.

Apple has already banned numerous older Samsung devices from shipment into the U.S., in addition to the $1B USD in damages it secured from Samsung using infringement. Now it will likely look to move aggressively to ban shipments of newer Samsung tablets and smartphones like the Galaxy S4.

 

[Voyager6]

Completely ridiculous that the USPTO would allow the patent (for prior art) just because the type of screen changed. So, if dish went to SSD drives and flash memory in it's receivers could it get a patent for "30 second skip"?

Of course Apple didn't invent any of these things -- multitouch and heuristics for detected angular swipes were available on older resistive touch screens. However, modern phones don't use resistive touch. The current state of U.S. technology patents allows you to repatent virtually identical firmware on a new kind of hardware.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Please... it's just business d*ck waving going on. Samsung phones are not going away anytime soon, nor is Motorola. Hell with all the patents Google acquired from Moto they could probably make Apple's life miserable too but they've been taking the high road.