TI Sued Over Patent Infringement in OMAP 3 and 4 Series

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alidan

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not sure what these pattents are exactly, but if used in chips predateing ti's use, than i can see a legitimate concern.

granted i dont know much and for all i know these could be the rounded edges of hardware.
 
This is insane!

this has to burn a bridge for innovators. Originally, Patents and IP, ( Intellectual Property) were created to protect inventors and innovation. Nowadays, it is a marketing tool to screw anyone in the @$$ for billions and deters innovation. This is sickening to see a good idea being abused.
 

mrmez

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It is a bit out of control for sure. But won't it deter innovation even more if everyone blatantly violates patents with no consequence?

I mean, whats the point in spending billions on R&D creating something new if everyone will copy you tomorrow at no cost?

There is no magic bullet here. Protecting IP is difficult and costly. With so many million patents, its also extremely difficult to find if there is something already out there, especially when the descriptions can be so vague.
 

seezur

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[citation][nom]mortsmi7[/nom]How do they know if they infringed upon this stuff? Do they dissect and trace out all TI's circuitry?[/citation]

Sort of, if the court allows it TI will have to release the designs of their possibly infringing product to the legal team of Cradle IP to determine if any intellectual property was used. There are alot of maybes involved in something like this. It also depends on the validity of Cradle IP's patents. If they are to vague then it may just get thrown out.
 

alidan

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[citation][nom]mrmez[/nom]It is a bit out of control for sure. But won't it deter innovation even more if everyone blatantly violates patents with no consequence?I mean, whats the point in spending billions on R&D creating something new if everyone will copy you tomorrow at no cost?There is no magic bullet here. Protecting IP is difficult and costly. With so many million patents, its also extremely difficult to find if there is something already out there, especially when the descriptions can be so vague.[/citation]

if everyones going to coppy you, the next logical step is to pool r&d from multipul companies together and research for common good, and fight in the manufacturing space.

 

mrmaia

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Patents are becoming a new business in which everyone tries to capitalize, market their products and screw their concurrents AT THE SAME TIME. Seems like it's the ideal business.
 

mrmez

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That will never happen.

Why would Intel (who most people will agree is the market leader in outright performance), want to share anything with AMD?
They have spent trillions over the years on R&D, building fab plants and generally working pretty hard to remain #1. AMD on the other hand who have cut down on assets, and aren't able to compete on outright performance, but rather price/performance, now show up at Intel and want to combine efforts and share IP. Great deal for AMD.

An analogy is like a group assignment at uni/whatever. Sure, if you are the dumbass of the class you will get a free ride to an extent. On the other side the smartest person gets their work diluted by a few other idiots.

At the end of the day the consumer suffers too. No longer do I have a choice of two different CPU's, after combining efforts there is one choice and they can charge whatever they want.

As said, the current IP/Patent wars are a real problem with no immediate solution. AFAIK the law is changing to more accurately reflect WHO applied for a patent first and give them legal ownership. Long term solutions must include much more accurate details and descriptions. A lot of the descriptions are so vague that accidental violation is a reality. Other possibilities include "time to market" limitations (once granted a patent you have x time to get a product to market or you lose it), and maybe non-transferable/sellable patents. Unfortunately both, especially the latter have many problems. Why would i bother creating something new if my specific company couldn't use it, and I can't sell it?
 
G

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This brought up a point concerning patent trolls. If a company abandons the development of a patent, the can lose it. How can one be developing a patent when they have no technical capability? (This does not apply to the case above because the holding company explicitly has said they have continued development.)
 
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