S3 Sues Apple Over 3D Graphics Rendering

[digiex]

@falchard

S3 is not a patent troll, they are a legitimate designer in graphics industry way back before nvidia and ATI/AMD overran them to near extinction.

 

[mosu]

Some of you readers are too young to remember S3, so you're excused...but no, S3 is not a patent troll, this is just the answer to Apple's legal crap.

 

[tmk221]

[citation][nom]falchard[/nom]Block and Band oriented traversal is too obvious a method for drawing triangles in a 3D image. Why does the US patent office give such obvious patent trolls away?[/citation]

Apple got patent for tablet design.. how about that? isn't that too obvious?

I'll be glad if Apple loses not becouse I accualy think that S3 patents are worth anything and Apple hurt S3, but becouse they screwed Samsung over Galaxy Tab

 

[SteelCity1981]

S# has to make money now some way right? LOL

 

[dargon_supreme]

Apple products are overpriced. If there is one company that will be least affected by Apple is paying royalties. Considering the amount of patents Apple has, it probably will receive more than it pays.

 

[dargon_supreme]

Fixed:

Apple products are over priced. If there is one company that will be less affected by paying royalties, it's Apple. Considering the amount of patents Apple has, it probably will receive more than it pays.

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]Thunderfox[/nom]S3 still exists? And it owns meaningful patents related to 3D? How is it possible that these patents only affect Apple? Is the rest of the industry already paying them fees for what they own?[/citation]
IBM invented the hard drive 55 years ago, I suppose that is irellevant? It doesn't matter how long ago or whether the industry has moved onto more advanced systems, if you copy it and don't pay appropriate dues to the patent holder it is still an infrigement.

 

[Camikazi]

[citation][nom]Thunderfox[/nom]S3 still exists? And it owns meaningful patents related to 3D? How is it possible that these patents only affect Apple? Is the rest of the industry already paying them fees for what they own?[/citation]
Well see, most companies will allow certain patents to be used without license when they are vital to progress, that goes on for as long as everyone plays fair and nicely, once someone stops playing nice this free usage gets revoked and lawsuits start. Apple seems to have forgotten that they are using patented yet unlicensed tech in pretty much all their products and their being a bully is catching up with them. That whole allowing all to use you tech thing is like a self policing and happens between many companies, so if one company stops playing nice they will get beat into submission and stop being stupid, it seems it's Apples turn to get beat.

 

[dark_lord69]

S3 sued nVidia a long time ago when nVidia used thier technology.
BUT S3 used some nVidia technology and nVidia was going to sue them.

Instead, the just signed a deal that would allow eachother to use eachother's technology. This happened at about the time the first Unreal was released, which was when S3 was about as relavent as it ever got.
I remember seeing a few S3 video cards you could buy, but no one bought them and nVidia continued to gain ground against the more popular 3DFX.

When Unreal come out my friend just got a 3DFX VooDoo 2 and nVidia had thier Riva TNT cards. S3 cards were not popular at all...

 

[theoldgrumpybear]

The end result should be that the US Patent Office realizes that they need to change patents and rules, it is broken today.
The lifetime of a "Medical patent" (before anyone can make a copy without paying royalities) i think is 7 years.
In the tech industry that moves a lot faster it is 30 years or so.

If you have not been able to make money off your patent in 7 years, general technology has overrun your original idea. If you then look at the ongoing Patent Wars most of them would dissapear if you had a 7 year rule.

 

[lamorpa]

yet article not proofread.

 

[cookoy]

It seems like even patent litigation cases are joining the rapid release cycle fads. Someone please create a WikiSueYouAll site to keep track of who's suing who, who is suing where, who is suing what,... plus a scoreboard.

 

[Guest]

@theoldgrumpybear

and if that held true i think everyone would be making x86 instruction set compatible CPU, certain technologies cost ungodly amounts of money to develop "and" market, 7 years is short enough to allow other companies to sit on the sidelines and then adapt the technology when it is successful thus punishing the company who is spearheading the technology (and sunk all their r&d and marketing to make the technology main stream), DVD took more then 10 years before even earning mass market adoption, BlueRay has been available for over 5 years and barely even made a dent in the market

medical patents expire fast because health care is deemed as a necessity, you should not be required to pay an arm and a leg just for a head ache pill

the issue is not with the patent system in whole, the issue is more related to junk patents, in particular patents covering "innovation" and "software" where by you can patent a vague concept as opposed to a fully defined solution (S3 patent being the later)

it would be absurd to ask for the complete system to be dismantled just because a small part does not work correctly, just fix the damn broken bit

 

[ronch79]

I believe this all started when Apple fired the first salvo at HTC. HTC chairman/CEO Cher Wang's wife is VIA CEO Wenchi Chen. We know VIA fired back at Apple for CPU patent infringements recently. And well, it seems HTC and VIA aren't content with that. Since S3 is connected with VIA (having used their graphics technology in their IGP-equipped chipsets) and HTC is also connected with S3 (I think they bought some technology from them, or something like that... these three are practically close friends), I'm sure they also flipped through their patent portfolio and tried to find something to hit Apple with.

 

[eddieroolz]

This intertwined mess of lawsuits has got to stop.

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]jecastej[/nom]I can only say if Apple losses to S3 patens Apple will have to pay and I will respect that decision.But to say it clearly, when a German judge found merits in Apple claiming against Samsung many here and there said the judge received money or pressure from Apple or invalidated and discredited that decision. Still today many here are arguing there is no other possible way to design a tablet and that Apple got away with the minimalistic design patent. All this discredits the German decision.But now what are some you going to say if Apple losses? The system suddenly works, alleluia!Do you really believe in the judges and the jury with their faults and merits or do you already make up your mind and know what you are going to say if Apple looses on wins? Now call me fanboy.[/citation]

apple, i sue you over looking like me
s3, i sue you because you are using an underlining process we made and patented

think of it like this

its the difference between the geek girl in highschool copying the "cool" persons look, and that cool person copying off the geeks test.

one is... well... a douche move...
the other, however, is detention at least, possibly suspension, and unlikely but possible expulsion.

but that cool kid has ALLOT of friends and can get away with... lets put it this way... insane claims.

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]IBM invented the hard drive 55 years ago, I suppose that is irellevant? It doesn't matter how long ago or whether the industry has moved onto more advanced systems, if you copy it and don't pay appropriate dues to the patent holder it is still an infrigement.[/citation]

patents run out i believe after 15 or 25 years i forget which. there are various ways to extend it, but not like copyright which gives you 75 years, and trade marks which can give you more.

 

[scannall]

Eh, considering Apple doesn't manufacture their own graphics chips then this is an empty suit. The patents are exhausted by the makers of the parts they use.