[kitsunesoba]

That was FaceTime that they intended to open source, and it was supposedly a patent troll that forced them to move FaceTime to a more centralized design (it was originally P2P) which in turn made open sourcing more problematic.

[smnrchrds]

That was certainly the excuse. But it is trivial for Apple to buy any patent it needs. I believe the real reason is that FaceTime and iMessage hook people to Apple platform and discourage switching to another one.

[aeontech]

The patent troll in the case got a 440M award… and Apple had to spend a bunch of engineering time throwing out the already-working p2p implementation and rebuilding a centralized version… and you’re suggesting that this was all a mere smoke screen?

[smnrchrds]

They have 200 billion dollars in cash. They could have bought out the troll if they wanted to.

[viro]

> trivial for Apple to buy any patent it needs.

Yea ... umm thats not how reality works. Companies CAN refuse to sell or license a patent at a rate that is not absurd.

[peytn]

Wouldn’t that encourage future lawsuits from other patent trolls?