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Last year, Apple’s lawyers sent Henrik Huseby, the owner of a small electronics repair shop in Norway, a letter demanding that he immediately stop using aftermarket iPhone screens at his repair business and that he pay the company a settlement.
Norway’s customs officials had seized a shipment of 63 iPhone 6 and 6S replacement screens on their way to Henrik’s shop from Asia and alerted Apple; the company said they were counterfeit.
In order to avoid being sued, Apple asked Huseby for “copies of invoices, product lists, order forms, payment information, prints from the internet and other relevant material regarding the purchase [of screens], including copies of any correspondence with the supplier … we reserve the right to request further documentation at a later date.”
The letter, sent by Frank Jorgensen, an attorney at the Njord law firm on behalf of Apple, included a settlement agreement that also notified him the screens would be destroyed. The settlement agreement said that Huseby agrees “not to manufacture, import, sell, market, or otherwise deal with any products that infringe Apple’s trademarks,” and asked required him to pay 27,700 Norwegian Krone ($3,566) to make the problem go away without a trial.
“Intellectual Property Law is a specialized area of law, and seeking legal advice is in many instances recommended,” Jorgensen wrote in the letter accompanying the settlement agreement. “However, we can inform you that further proceedings and costs can be avoided by settling the case.”
Huseby decided to fight the case.
“That’s a letter I would never put my signature on,” Huseby told me in an email. “They threw all kinds of claims against me and told me the laws and acted so friendly and just wanted me to sign the letter so it would all be over. I had a good lawyer that completely understood the problem, did good research, and read the law correctly.”
Apple sued him. Local news outlets reported that Apple had five lawyers in the courtroom working on the case, but Huseby won. Apple has appealed the decision to a higher court; the court has not yet decided whether to accept the appeal.
[...] The specifics of Huseby’s case won’t matter for American repair shops, but that Apple continues to aggressively pursue a repair shop owner over 63 iPhone screens signals that Apple is not interested in changing its stance on independent repair, and that right to repair activists and independent repair companies should expect a long fight ahead of them: “I feel that this case was extremely important for them to win,” Huseby said.
He just hopes to get back to his shop, he told me.
“I will continue to repair iPhone like I did before, no change,” he said. “I’m glad I now don’t have to be afraid of importing compatible spare parts for iPhone again.”
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 17 2018, @12:56PM (2 children)
I'll tell you a secret : car makers don't generally makes their own brake pads and oil filters (if ever AFAIK). They are contracted out to companies like Ferodo and Fram and supplied to the car makers for fitting to new cars, and for selling as spares at dealerships with "Chrysler" (or whatever) branding on the box. That has been the practice in that trade for years.
That's no secret, that's common knowledge among anyone who knows the first thing about cars. Automakers like Ford and Honda barely make *anything* themselves, aside from engines and bodies. The only thing they're good at is the actual design of course, and on the manufacturing side they make the "bodies in white" (the stamped and pressed steel pieces that are welded together to make the chassis), and the engine blocks and other mechanicals (pistons, camshafts, crankshafts, etc. for the engines, suspension pieces, etc.). Pretty much everything else is contracted out to a supplier: electronics, lights, filters, belts, brake pads, tires, etc. The automaker then has the supplier ship all these things to their factories where they're put together into working cars. Modern automobiles probably have the most complicated supply chains of any product on the planet (airliners and cruise ships might be more though).
(Score: 2) by Shimitar on Tuesday April 17 2018, @02:22PM
I believe cars are the most complex. As for aircrafts, and i believe cruise ships is even more so, it's often a much less industrialized approach due to raw numbers. It make sense to set up such a complex supply chain only for very high market numbers. If you make "only" a few hundreds of units (or even much much less!) it does not make sense.
For example, the very widespread Boeing 737 has been produced in a few thousands units... While the shittiest car is what, two orders of magnitude more?
And for cruise ships, i would not be surprised if it was more like an handicraft product in comparison with cars.
Coding is an art. No, java is not coding. Yes, i am biased, i know, sorry if this bothers you.
(Score: 3, Funny) by redneckmother on Tuesday April 17 2018, @03:56PM
... citation needed ...
Mas cerveza por favor.