Apple: Andy Rubin Took Android Framework from Apple

[cdmagurus.com]

In its latest filing with the U.S. International Trade Commission concerning its case with HTC, Apple alleges that Andy Rubin, the chief architect behind Google's Android platform, took a discovery made by Apple engineers when he worked at Apple and used it in the base framework for Android. The complaint reads, in part, "Android and Mr. Rubin's relevant background does not start, as HTC would like the Commission to believe, with his work at General Magic or Danger in the mid-1990s. In reality, as the evidence revealed at the hearing, Mr. Rubin began his career at Apple in the early 1990s and worked as a low-level engineer specifically reporting to the inventors of the '263 [realtime API] patent at the exact time their invention was being conceived and developed. It is thus no wonder that the infringing Android platform used the claimed subsystem approach of the '263 patent that allows for flexibility of design and enables the platform to be 'highly customizable and expandable' as HTC touts." Apple goes on to accuse HTC of distorting the truth to cover up this key developmental event. Apple's filing is meant to show that HTC is not being honest with the court, however, it could be used as the basis for a much more damaging legal attack directly against Google. Apple, so far, has only sued Android handset makers and not Google itself for alleged patent infringements.



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