[throw20102010]

I know lots of people on HN aren’t a fan of patents- either because of patent trolls or because they believe that patents harm FOSS. So knowing that, I expect a few people to disagree with what I say.

This is exactly what patents are supposed to protect you from. If you have a good idea, then file a patent and protect yourself. If it’s worth $500k per year then it’s worth having a patent lawyer help you do it right. Get the core stuff patented, not just the fluff. This way Apple can’t just pull your livelihood from you.

If you tried to patent your idea and it wasn’t patentable, then it’s probably not really your idea, and you can’t feel bad when Apple steals something that isn’t yours.

But you have to do this sooner rather than later. If you wait until your app has become a feature in iOS then it’s too late.

Want proof that patents are necessary? Just look at how many patents that Apple, Samsung, SpaceX, etc. have.

[tetrep]

But patents wouldn't protect them in this instance. Patents are explicitly for implementations, not abstractions/ideas. I highly doubt they could get a patent on an implementation sufficiently abstract that would block any statistical tracking/monitoring of app usage, or at least one that wouldn't run into prior art issues.

Apple isn't tunneling everything through a VPN to track it.

[geegoo]

Unfortunately you touched on what makes this specific case a problem: Their solution is non-patentable. They failed to do a appropriate post-mortem of their business and instead resorted to blaming Apple for their failure.

[busymom0]

Ideas aren't patentable. Execution/implementation of the tech is patentable and in this case, they would have to patent the use of VPN to track usage. That's easily by-passable as Apple doesn't need to do this via a VPN. They have built the tech in the iOS itself.

Same reason snapchat couldn't patent their stories or disappearing messages ideas and got copied by FB and Instagram.

[Bakary]

Having a patent would solve the insult to injury of the feature being copied, but not the injury itself of the app being yanked off the store.