I came across this article over at digg.com
How can Apple possible think they will keep getting away with this?
They are just trying to disrupt other companies enough so that more users will bite into their big juice fruit pie! HTC/Android aren’t stepping down though, they have managed to create work arounds in the past and they will do it again but they shouldn’t have to!
Grr… this really grinds my gears.
This is just getting really stupid now. Mobile phones since they were invented have been able to “detect phone numbers” and from 2000-2009, emails were able to be detected as well.
Really gets me hot under the collar. My bet would be that, because Mr Jobs is no longer around, they can’t invent anything new, or something that will take the world by storm again, so instead of actually trying that they take the lazy option and try to sue Android/HTC.
What a load of BS.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding this, but are Apple trying too say they have a patent that stops other peoples applications from recognising (amongst other things) a URL in a document ???
Erm … what about web browsers … they can recognise a URL, email address, etc. :o
Don’t say that too loud! whispers Apples are every where…
I’m just waiting to see “Apple sues Google for Chrome/Chromebooks using a URL bar” or “Apple sues Microsoft for using URL’s in Word” :o
Why don’t they just go all the way… “Apple sues the internet for using URL’s” or “Apple sues the world for using the internet”.
Yeh, but web browsers pre-date iOS (and the 1996 patent date) … so if anyone’s infringing it’s Apple … but wouldn’t this come under “prior art” and therefore be yet another unenforceable broad ranging patent handed out by the USPO, who then leave it to the courts to decide if it’s enforceable.
More rich lawyers I guess … a system invented by lawyers that benefits lawyers, and paid for by tax payers and customers … go figure :
Hell it’s the US legal system that’s the patent troll, more so than the corporations involved … they want a slice of the customers money too.
The patent in question:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5946647.html
dated 1996, and ridiculously broad in scope :
A system and method causes a computer to detect and perform actions on structures identified in computer data. The system provides an analyzer server, an application program interface, a user interface and an action processor. The analyzer server receives from an application running concurrently data having recognizable structures, uses a pattern analysis unit, such as a parser or fast string search function, to detect structures in the data, and links relevant actions to the detected structures. The application program interface communicates with the application running concurrently, and transmits relevant information to the user interface. Thus, the user interface can present and enable selection of the detected structures, and upon selection of a detected structure, present the linked candidate actions. Upon selection of an action, the action processor performs the action on the detected structure.
I think I’m in the wrong line of work. Being a patent lawyer is the future! These guys are paid a fortune and probably don’t really know what they are fighting for/against.
As I’ve said before I think all of this is a ridiculous crusade. The only companies who are bothered are massive international companies! Don’t they have enough of our money? It’s just greed… just greed.
@Mark - I’m sure Apple have stolen ideas in the past so yeah they probably are infringing on someone. But as long as they have the money and the means to do battle they will always win. How many times have we seen this, the bigger company will just keep paying out until whoever they are fighting runs out of money and they win by default.
Agreed FUD is one of their tools, and outlasting the competition in court is another.
If you look at the broad scope of this patent, I reckon people like M$, Google, Yahoo, and MANY other companies should join in and help HTC out with this one … or they just might find themselves the next target, and Apple just might (by then) have legal precedence to back them up.
Even Oracles database software probably use a “system to … detect and perform actions on structures identified in computer data” … hell what software doesn’t ?
The USPO need to get their act together and stop with the broad patents.
I have a great idea for a system and method for passing air in/out through the mouth and nose … I call it breathing, I’m now off to the USPO … prior art, never heard of it 
Mark, that patent would rock… oh wait…
This patent has to be the most stupidest patent out there.