HTC Takes Revenge; Hits Apple

As expected, HTC has hit back at Apple. The Nexus One maker has filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) to halt the importation and sale of the iPhone, iPad and iPod in the United States.
 
The row was started by Apple when the company filed a lawsuit against HTC for infringing on 20 Apple patents related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware.
 
It is widely believed that Apple's target is Google's Linux-based Android which is making inroads into Apple's smart phone territory. But Google might be too big for Apple to fight with. HTC, one of the core partners of Google, seemed to be an easy target for Apple.
 
“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”
 
Steve's quote becomes even more interesting considering the fact that Apple heavily borrows from the free software or open source technologies. The company then converts those 'open source' projects into its proprietary technologies. In fact Apple can be cited as an excellent example of how great and powerful Open Source or Free Software is -- all you need is a wizard to pack it the way Steve Jobs does it.
 
There is no doubt one would praise Steve Jobs for his contribution to the technology world. That said, Apple is a strict closed source company which imposes heavy restrictions on its users. The company is now going to bite the hands that feed it; it is going to hunt down open source and free software.
 
According to The Register, Steve Jobs reportedly replied to and email sent to him by Hugo Roy, an activist with the Free Software Foundation Europe, “A patent pool is being assembled to go after Theora and other “open source” codecs now. Unfortunately, just because something is open source, it doesn’t mean or guarantee that it doesn’t infringe on others patents. An open standard is different from being royalty free or open source.” 
 
Let's come back to HTC-Apple duel. HTC recently signed a cross license deal with Microsoft to gain some patent umbrella against Apple.
 
“As the innovator of the original Windows Mobile PocketPC Phone Edition in 2002 and the first Android smartphone in 2008, HTC believes the industry should be driven by healthy competition and innovation that offer consumers the best, most accessible mobile experiences possible,” said Jason Mackenzie, vice president of North America, HTC Corporation. “We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property*, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones.”
 
Apple has been engaged in similar legal battle with Nokia, Kodak and many other industry players.
 
Scrap Software Patents
These increasing cases of software infringements strengthen the notion that software patents must be scrapped.  Richard M Stallman, the founder of Free Software Foundation and the GNU Project has been campaigning about the dangers of Software Patents.
 
Bruce Perens has written in detail about the problems of software patents, “Patents, originally created to stimulate innovation, may now be having the opposite effect, at least in the software industry. Plagued by an exponential growth in software patents, many of which are not valid, software vendors and developers must navigate a potential minefield to avoid patent infringement and future lawsuits. Coupled with strategies to exploit this confusion over patents, especially in standards setting organizations, it appears that software advancement will become stifled unless legal action is taken to resolve the situation...”
 
He further wrote ... “Patent royalties tend to create discrimination against small-to-medium-sized businesses developing any form of software, and especially against Open Source developers.

The largest businesses in an industry generally have patent cross-licenses with their peers, and thus they may ignore each other's patents while smaller businesses have no choice but to license those patents if they use them. As a result, there is a "tax" upon technology that small businesses must pay while the largest businesses are exempt.”
 
Software patents have become weapons for companies to fight with each other. This not only wastes valuable resources but also time of courts. Many activists and experts have been raising questions about the legality of software patents. 
 
Many countries including India do no allow software patents.

What do you think, should Software Patents be scrapped?