Seems like Apple got bit by the same bug that they used to bite the competition about 15 years ago.
Apple didn’t create Firewire, but they were a strong proponent in establishing the Firewire standard, they successfully got it recognized as a standard (IEEE 1394), and incorporated it into the Mac’s hardware for over a decade. Video camcorders, cameras and other high-data rate devices followed suit. Upon adoption of the IEEE 1394, Apple demanded royalty payments for use of any Firewire Hub chipset.
This effectively killed Firewire, and was sleazy as all h*ll. It was also an effective tool to accelerate USB 2.0 into the cabling domain.
IMHO, this case is utter crap; when you sponsor a STANDARD, you should forfeit all rights to exclusivity and royalties as a Patent holder. Why? When you become a STANDARD, you effectively become the ‘only’ viable way to do something.
Now, Apple seems to have started making these t*rd sandwiches, it’s kinda ironic to see them getting force fed a nice big serving themselves.
Sorry, you are wrong! Apple did indeed create FireWire and holds the patents. Yes, there is a IEEE 1394 standard for FireWire but that does NOT invalidate that patent, it just established it as a standard so that other makers would know what was required and make their products to be compliant to a known standard, and that also set the standard connectors and voltages as specified by Apple. There are many patented standards. It is not similar to a FRAND patent at all. Apple was merely attempting to exercise its licensing rights for its intellectual property.