"A system and method causes a computer to detect and perform actions on structures identified in computer data... uses a pattern analysis unit ... to detect structures in the data, and links relevant actions to the detected structures. .... Thus, the user interface can present and enable selection of the detected structures, and upon selection of a detected structure, present the linked candidate actions."

And here's an older article with more description http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/16/apple-vs-google-insid...

"When an iPhone receives a message that contains a phone number or an address -- e-mail, Web or street -- those bits of data are automatically highlighted, underlined and turned into clickable links.

Click on the phone number, and the iPhone asks if you want to dial it. Click on the Web address, and it opens in Safari. Click on the street address, and Maps will display it."

I should have realized during the 'look and feel' wars that its part of their DNA.

In other news, "Samsung adds four more complaints to its German patent offensive against Apple":

http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/19/2646835/samsung-apple-ger...

I would love for someone at one of these companies to explain how on earth this benefits the consumer.

  1. A computer-based system for detecting structures in data
  and performing actions on detected structures, comprising:
    an input device for receiving data;
    an output device for presenting data;
    a memory storing information including program routines
      including:
      an analyzer server for detecting structures in the
        data, and for linking actions to the detected
        structures;
      a user interface enabling the selection of a detected
        structure and a linked action; and
      an action processor for performing the selected action
        linked to the selected structure; and
    a processing unit coupled to the input device, the
      output device, and the memory for controlling the
      execution of the program routines.
  
  8. The system recited in claim 1, wherein the user
  interface highlights detected structures.

(I wonder how Wikipedia would be doing if we weren't allowed to modify others' entries?)

"Hello, Joshua."

"Strange game. The only winning move is not to play."

HTC == Taiwan company

Any surprise why the US International Trade Commission bans HTC?

Most non-geeks just don't care about this stuff one way or another. And most geeks either rationalize it or post how annoyed by it they are from their shiny new MacBook or iPhone.

I think this course of action is incredibly stupid of Apple regardless of public perception though. If they ever did manage to get Android killed in the way they seem to want to (Jobs' 'thermonuclear' option), don't they realize that would make them the 90's-Microsoft of smartphones? Is killing Android worth a future in which they have to cede control of the app store, debundle mobile Safari, or offer the user a choice of browsers, etc?

Given their corporate culture of control, having a relatively strong competitor is actually a VERY GOOD thing for them, especially when they are still pulling in record profits quarter after quarter even with the competition.

Of course, I don't expect they ever will actually kill Android, they are just guaranteeing Google is going to go after them in all the same markets using Motorola IP, forcing widescale settlements. In the end nothing will be gained by anyone except the lawyers.

It's only people who actually care about news like that who will see this as a bad thing. The rest get a new, shiny toy every year or so and are happy...

At least the patents Apple use in lawsuits are ones they've filed themselves, rather than having bought them.

Or as they say, don't hate the player, hate the game.

Note: I agree with your sentiment

In a world where everyone just copies everyone else freely (e.g. the desktop PC world) there is/would be much less innovation.

The investments that go into many breakthrough products (iphone, ipad) are made with the understanding that IP protections are in place to prevent copycats from waltzing in and taking all the benefits later on.

Take away those protections and the initial investments aren't made in many cases and the customer sees far fewer breakthrough products.

The quote from the film, in the context of having watched it, describes, with great brevity that actions such as the one being discussed in this thread can actually have negative results. The permutations are many and complex. I'll go over a few:

1- Don't file patents. As someone said. Google tried this. Didn't work.

2- Don't sue. Lot's of companies take this approach. I can probably imagine that a company like IBM has so much covered that they could have a whole department doing nothing but suing other companies. They don't seem to be in that business. Then again, companies like Google have tried to remain outside the fray and, ultimately, had to invest in a $12 billion dollar arsenal to have some protection. Twelve billion dollars. So much wasted.

3- We all have patents and we all sue. Global Thermonuclear Patent War (GTPW): I sue you for everything I can and you counter-sue me with all you got. We go at it for years. I win sometimes and so do you. We burn through tons of cash that could have been used for far more productive pursuits. Progress slows. Nobody wins. Some loose in monumental ways.

4- Innovators with great ideas and drive become afraid of getting anywhere close to the GTPW and instead choose to focus their efforts elsewhere or simply abandon the field.

5- The GTPW is fueled by the failure of the patent system and ignorant politicians to do the right thing. Patents (the weapons of war) are granted to all participants at an ever-increasing rate. The wars escalate and, very soon, it is quite literally impossible to innovate. Attempting to innovate means to create an exposure to litigation and becoming embroiled in your own GTPW.

6- Investors begin to pull back because new ventures --and the money that went into them-- can evaporate in a microsecond if they even skirt the edges of the GTPW.

7- The Chinese don't give a crap about any of this so, while we are all engulfed in GTPW they continue to copy, learn, grow, experiment, build, invest, innovate and advance. Check mate.

8- Western political systems can't get out of its own way to save our own lives, so the situation continues to escalate until there's total meltdown --at which point it is too late.

9- Even in the face of having the gun to our own heads and the trigger partially pulled the western world refuses to act as the adults in the room and we continue, little by little, to pull the triggers that will ultimately destroy our way of life for decades, if not generations.

Then comes the realization: "Strange game. The only winning move is not to play."

So, you can see now that this short little quote from a geek movie actually is very relevant and excels at summarizing a wide range of scenarios that I've only glanced at. The failures of the patent system and what companies are doing to each other is but one of a myriad of problems created by incompetent governments around the world.

AT&T just had to spend three billion dollars because the government did not want to let it buy T-Mobile. Three billion dollars. What you hear is the huge sucking sound of innovation, jobs and growth leaving the room.

Someone, somewhere, somehow has to take a really good look at what is going on in the western world and start fixing problems right now. The path we are on leads to absolutely nothing that is good. In many ways it might already be too late.