Apple's first major legal win against Android is no slam dunk

This article seems to indicate a major win for Apple. On the other hand, this article in the Groklaw news clips on the right hand side of the page, does not:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-21/htc-completed-worka...

And PJ has added some very interesting notes to the effect that due to these court actions, Apple lost 9 patents and even the one that has been held up is being worked around virtually immediately. PJ's take is that things are going quite well.

So who's right ?

Both are right. Apple did win but won only one past. HTC did win because HTC invalidated the majority of the claim.

And, they still didn't litigate the validity of the patent ... There's prior art all over that patent, dating back to Borland's 1983 Sidekick software.

Yup. Not a final disposition, except that htc finds it easier and cheaper to work around the single claim that was upheld. Certainly not a decision that would encourage Apple to tacle Google head-on.

Off topic, but... Sidekick was a brilliant piece of software in its day. I hadn't thought about that one in a long time. Oh, and yeah, JaseP is right. It's almost certainly prior art that applies to this case.

I can't take credit for that rediscovery. Someone else brought it up in talk backs on another blog...