Apple patent case 'could affect all android phones'

Apple's legal action against HTC may have "wider implications" for all phone makers using Google's Android operating system, an analyst has warned.

Ian Fogg of Forrester Research said that the case against HTC, in which Apple alleges infringement of 20 of its patents, could be the first of many.

Although Apple has not named Google in the suits, many of the named patents relate to operating system processes.

Google has taken the unusual step of publicly supporting HTC in the case.

"We are not a party to this lawsuit," said a Google spokesperson.

"However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it."

Wider implications

HTC was the first manufacturer to use Android in its phones and is also the maker of Google's own brand Nexus One handset.

Some have speculated that Apple - which makes the popular iPhone - are attacking Google "by proxy" by filing the case against HTC.

"I think this is kind of an indirect lawsuit against Google," analyst Shaw Wu of Kaufman Brothers told Reuters.

Some of the patents that Apple alleges have been infringed are 15 years old and cover aspects of operating systems.

As a result, some believe that the patents cannot just relate to HTC and believe the case may just be an opening salvo against other firms and possibly Google.

"Simply because Apple has focused on HTC now doesn't mean it won't take action against other manufacturers later," Mr Fogg told BBC News.

"[This case] could have implications for all other phone manufacturers which have just announced their phones at Mobile World Congress."

Mobile World Congress is a showcase for the phone industry, held every February in Barcelona, Spain.

Manufacturers including Sony Ericsson, LG, Samsung and HTC announced new handsets running Android at the show.

"2010 is going to be the year of Android," said Mr Fogg.

Legal web

In a statement Apple boss Steve Jobs said: "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."

The Californian firm alleges that HTC have infringed 20 patents owned by Apple that are used in the iPhone.

Apple is seeking an injunction which would effectively bar HTC from selling phones that use the disputed technology in the US.

The legal action has been filed with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) and a district court in Delaware.

HTC has said it is unable to comment on the case until it has had a chance to assess the validity of the claims.

It is the latest in a series of legal wrangles involving Apple.

Finnish phone giant Nokia sued Apple for patent infringement in October 2009, alleging it had stolen patented technology.

In response, Apple countersued in December 2009, followed by a second round of legal action from Nokia.

Apple is also being investigated by the ITC following a complaint by camera manufacturer Kodak. The firm alleges that the iPhone uses technology for previewing pictures that infringe Kodak patents.

Survivor of Two Atomic Blasts Dies

When looking at unlikely and impossible feats of luck both good and bad, one of the hallmark figures is Tsutomu Yamaguchi.  The story of Yamaguchi's survival and subsequent danger is so incredible that many list it as a case of fate intervening even as an entire city is destroyed around him.  This story is even more incredible than the cases of plane crashes where there is only one survivor as Mr. Yamaguchi survived not one, but two nuclear attacks on Japan in 1945 before dying just this month of stomach cancer.

Yamaguchi's incredible story that began in Hiroshima would later end in Nagasaki, but not due to either atomic blast he survived.  His journey would see him through ground zero of the most intense war Japan would ever face, and his story would be retold years after the events.  The first bomb struck just as Yamaguchi was arriving in Hiroshima to work as an engineer when suddenly a tremendous boom shattered one of his eardrums and a bright flash blinded him temporarily.  Though he was burned badly on his upper body he did eventually recover while staying with his family in Nagasaki.

Unfortunately, Nagasaki was the last place on Earth Yamaguchi should have been.  Working as an engineer, Yamaguchi realized he would have a considerable task with recovering the lost city of Hiroshima.  Luckily those fires were far away.  For a moment Yamaguchi felt safer.  After that a second blast destroyed his home city of Nagasaki.  And somehow he survived that as well.  In his life he would make a full recovery and even live to the age of 93.  Though the bomb had taken away the will to live for many survivors, Yamaguchi was not among them.  In 2005 he would begin speaking publicly about the horrors of nuclear war and attempt to find ways to bring attention to the horrors following a nuclear blast.

Whether it's a stroke of incredible fortune to survive two unlikely attacks using an experimental weapon more powerful than anything previously seen on Earth or an act of incredible misfortune to witness it entirely, the real question becomes one of human will.  How can someone witness something so awe inspiring and terrible and yet find a way to turn around and live life normally?  The power of the mind in this case is certainly inspiring, but it's also an extremely intense matter of intellectual curiosity.  Many of those who witnessed even one of the bombs were thrown into intense depression and post traumatic stress, often living in congregations and incapable of undertaking anything more than simple tasks to care for themselves.

So was there something more to Mr. Yamaguchi's survival than mere luck?  In his later years he did provide the world an incredible service by becoming a spokesman for the horrors of nuclear war and why they needed to be avoided in the future.  When one looks at it, it seems he was afterward fighting against the end of life on Earth.  Does that make this unlikely case of luck into something else?  Perhaps only time will tell.