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Apple said Tuesday that one of its engineers contributed to a patent Qualcomm says the iPhone maker infringed on, a twist in the long-running legal dispute between the two companies.
Apple said the concept behind the patent, which allows a smartphone to connect to the internet quickly once the device boots up, was proposed by Arjuna Siva, who worked for Apple before the 2011 release of the first iPhone that used a Qualcomm chip. Apple, which said Siva should be named on the patent, argued the point on the second day of a trial in a San Diego federal court.
Before Apple first released iPhones that use Qualcomm chips, the two companies worked together so Qualcomm could meet Apple's requirements for the components. To do that, the companies emailed back and forth and held calls together. The project was so secretive that the companies used code names for each other: Apple was "Maverick" and Qualcomm was "Eureka."
Apple says that while the two companies were in discussions, then-Apple engineer Arjuna Siva came up with the idea that Qualcomm would later patent. Siva, who now works at Google, will testify later in the trial.
"Does Qualcomm believe in giving credit where credit is due?" Apple's counsel, Joseph Mueller of Wilmer Hale, asked Monday.
Stephen Haenichen, Qualcomm's director of engineering and one of the inventors listed on the patent, said Siva didn't deserve credit for the invention. When asked what contribution Siva made, he replied, "Nothing at all."
In his testimony, Haenichen said Apple asked Qualcomm to build something the company had never made before, and to do it on a very short timeline. When Qualcomm delivered, Haenichen was thrilled. "It was clear this was going to change the way we build modems," he said Monday. "It was going to be meaningful to Qualcomm."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 10 2019, @12:52AM (1 child)
I have dozens of documents of an iPhone like device from the mid 80s. I was fascinated with the idea a portable media computer that was also a phone. Where do I sign up for my millions? Oh thats right Apple and Qualcomm 'stole' it all from me. I even worked at one of them at one point! So therefore I am owed a lot! /s
Apple asked Qualcomm to build something the company had never made before
Translation they were asked to build something. They did and did what they usually do, put a patent on it.
Having an idea does not get you much. Building something and putting a patent on it does.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 10 2019, @07:35AM
Did you happen to work on it with either (or both) Apple or Qualcomm? Because that part, and the accompanying documentation between both parties, seems to be relevant.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 10 2019, @12:53AM (4 children)
I have no love for the modern-day Apple nor lawyers, but I despise Qualcomm.
That said, I wish success to the Apple lawyers to screw over Qualcomm.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 10 2019, @01:13AM (3 children)
I hope the Qualcomm lawyers screw Apple. Qualcomm never foisted a cult upon us, so they are the better company in my book. Steve Jobs didn't invent anything, and was only a salesman.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 10 2019, @02:11PM (2 children)
You don't like Apple products (yes, a polite understatement) so you hate the founder that was able to focus and motivate his company on producing products that hundreds of millions of people like?
If inventing something is the true benchmark of any individual's worth - and I'm talking about Da Vinci and Edison types, not some "on a computer" patent application - then very few people have actual value. Did Henry Ford invent anything worth while? What about Ford Motor Co after his death? GM? Dodge/Chrysler? They all built upon the first vehicles produced and basically added "rounded corners".
I could go on and on about inventors, and industries and even salesmen. Wasn't Gandhi just a salesman for peace, or his philosophical and political views? The same goes for philosophers, authors, world leaders, etc. Just salesmen of their world views.
So hate on Jobs all you want. He was very good at running a company (oops, that's not just being a salesman) that produces products many, many people want and pay top dollar to obtain. For those of us who have owned Apple stock since it was around $6 (before the stock split), we certainly don't cast aspersions upon him (and especially not from our winter homes).
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday March 10 2019, @09:38PM (1 child)
Oh yes, that Gandhi sounds like a chill dude, with his whole "let's all just get on together" spiel, but you just wait until he researches nukes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 11 2019, @03:10AM
"Om ... MG! Did you see what that thing can do?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 10 2019, @01:54AM
The iSoreloser.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday March 10 2019, @02:21AM (2 children)
And, it was back in the days of DOS, that I was convinced that a basic TCPIP stack should be in the BIOS ROM, just like keyboard, display, and I/O port hooks.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Arik on Sunday March 10 2019, @02:42AM (1 child)
BIOS is slower and harder to update. And with a 286 or better, at least, the only thing it really needs to get working is the bootloader. Everything else can be copied to RAM and rewritten, and a lot of it normally was.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday March 10 2019, @04:04AM
Yeah, from config.sys definitely makes more sense.
I wanted a really minimal stack. Ping, telnet, time, minimum viable product.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Snotnose on Sunday March 10 2019, @02:54AM (1 child)
I worked for them for 15 years, they were always "think of a way to patent your idea". I never did, but they have an entire wall of patents. IMHO, 90% of them were bullshit, but that's the way our patent system works nowdays.
Back in '06 or so some of us got corralled into a top sekrit project to develop hardware and software for an unnamed client. We weren't to talk about anything we did to anyone, not even our spouses. We quickly figured out Apple was the potential client and, as far as the company knew, kept our mouths shut. Internally, we were both bitching and mocking the requirements. After about 6 months the whole thing dissolved, with no official word on who we were working "with", nor why things fell through.
About a year later the first iPhone showed up, with lots of stuff we'd worked on.
The moral? Our current patent system is broken, probably beyond repair. The winners are the lawyers, the losers are everyone else.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday March 10 2019, @03:04AM
I always enjoy your Qualc talk.
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