"Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal." Thanks, Steve Jobs! - The UpStream

Yeah, Steve Jobs said that. Looks like 1996 Steve Jobs and 2010 Steve Jobs haven't met. When 1996 Steve Jobs was fired and sold off all his shares and anything Apple Computers-branded, 2010 Steve Jobs killed that man and renamed the company to Apple, Inc. And with that, he also went on a tirade of lawsuits and counter-suing with Nokia to now duking it out with HTC. Apple has sued HTC for infringing on 20 patents "related to the iPhone's user interface, underlying architecture and hardware."

Apple's claims are nuts! Just because ANOTHER phone has touch screen doesn't mean it's infringement. I got news for ya, Apple: You weren't the first. But yes, I understand, you're lost in the cloud that is your beloved operating system and won't admit that you merely passed the phone off by calling it innovation when inventions before you have outperformed it, I get it. It's fine. But you've even surprised HTC with these claims, who, by the way, had the PPC6600 before the thought of a touch device was even a gleam in your development team's eyes.

Here's the press release:

Apple today filed a lawsuit against HTC for infringing on 20 Apple patents related to the iPhone's user interface, underlying architecture and hardware. The lawsuit was filed concurrently with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and in U.S. District Court in Delaware.

"We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."

Apple reinvented the mobile phone in 2007 with its revolutionary iPhone, and did it again in 2008 with its pioneering App Store, which now offers more than 150,000 mobile applications in over 90 countries. Over 40 million iPhones have been sold worldwide.

And Steve Jobs had this to say, which is the most important part:

We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.

Clearly, they haven't met. This is how Steve Jobs made his claim to fame! By stealing others' works and tweaking it slightly. So the fact that he is now going crazy over the notion of a similar devices (or hundreds of them) is ridiculous! Pot, meet kettle.

Don't worry, we have HTC's response:

We only learned of Apple's actions based on your stories and Apple's press release. We have not been served any papers yet so we are in no position to comment on the claims. We respect and value patent rights but we are committed to defending our own innovations. We have been innovating and patenting our own technology for 13 years.

Apple is also suing over 10 more patents via the ITC, including every WinMo and Android phone from the G1 to the HD2. We here at PLuGHiTz Live! are at a loss for words right now, but we will have plenty to say live on our show on Sunday at 9PM ET!