Steve Jobs' patent could kill all Android sales in Australia

Stuart Corner
Friday, 14 October 2011 09:25

IT Industry - Strategy

Florian Mueller, an intellectual property activist-turned-analyst who blogs extensively on the many intellectual property suits in the IT industry has made a dire prediction: the judgment that saw the Galaxy Tab 10.1 banned in Australia could prevent the release of any new Android products in Australia.

Writing on his blog, Mueller said: "after [the Australian court] decision, I believe no company in the industry be able to launch any new Android-based touchscreen product in Australia anytime soon without incurring a high risk of another interim injunction. The two patents on which today's ruling is based aren't Galaxy Tab 10.1-specific at all. They will affect all Android-based smartphones and tablet computers, across all vendors."

Mueller says the two patents are Australian Patent No. 2005246219 on a 'multipoint touchscreen' and Australian Patent No. 2009233675 on a 'touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics'. The latter, he says, "is the Australian equivalent of a US software patent that lists Steve Jobs as the first inventor (of many)."

He added: "Whether Apple will aggressively pursue all other new Android product launches in Australia in the near term remains to be seen. At this point, Apple is in litigation with Samsung, Motorola and HTC, which are the three leading Android device makers. I believe any new Australian product launches by those vendors will be at considerable risk to say the least.

"But Apple may decide to focus on a few disputes since any action against other companies than the 'big three' would only increase the number of companies trying to bring counterclaims against Apple in different parts of the world, and Apple's legal department is already plenty busy."

He laid the blame for this parlous state of affairs on "Google's cavalier attitude toward other companies' intellectual property [which] is starting to backfire in seriously harmful ways."