Apple Stealing Tech from Smaller Companies

[0339327]

There have been numerous whispers about Apple practicing patent theft and using its largesse to ward off smaller adversaries. This is the first time I've seen the WSJ bring this issue to light.

I am not presumptuous enough to have an opinion either way, but if this is true, it is really unethical, and unacceptable behavior. I would expect this from Samsung, but hold Apple to a higher standard.

 

[russell_314]

Unfortunately, this happens in the tech industry. Unless there's a patent, you don't own it. Apple employees get poached by other companies all the time for what they know about Apple products.

 

[pshufd]

My brother told me that this was the Microsoft playbook back in the 1980s. He wrote a program that was unique, so Microsoft invited him in implying that they were interested in buying the company out. And, of course, they took his product and writing their own product that did the same thing.

Big companies can copy your program, buy you out, hire employees from you and small companies can't do much about it except to innovate relentlessly. Could Apple be doing this? Sure. I worked at a big tech company and, if there was a competitor with a serious threat, we added a similar feature and promised customers that we'd have the same thing in one, two, three years.