Is Adobe Prepping Major Lawsuit Against Apple?

[Michael Essany]

If you thought Apple and Adobe had an icy relationship before, you haven't seen anything yet.

There are rumors and rumblings across the web tonight that Adobe is putting the wheels in motion on what could prove to be a substantial lawsuit against Apple - the company that remains determined beyond words to keep Flash nowhere near their line of, well... everything.

As a result of Apple's unshakable anti-Flash posturing, Adobe may be getting their ducks in a row on a legal course of action to claim a piece of the i-pie.

According to the latest blog entry from Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols of IT World, Adobe's frustration multiplied exponentially when Apple suggested that Adobe Flash was, in effect, "not good enough" for the iPad. But the biggest blow to Adobe - and the reason the company may be interested in suing the pants off of Apple - came when Apple revised its iPhone SDK license to prevent developers from submitting programs that use cross-platform compilers.

It seems Adobe has had enough. And if certain "sources" are to be believed, Apple could very well end up in court. Without question, there is more than just animus brewing within the walls of Adobe. There seems to be outright hatred by some at Adobe toward their former partners and colleagues at Apple. Still, Adobe is playing it cool for now and not spilling the beans about any potential legal action. At present, an Adobe spokesperson named Wiebke Lips simply says that "We are aware of the new SDK language and are looking into it."

Of course, that language could also be code for: "Our lawyers are on their way over and we ain't talkin' until we know how many zeros to ask for."

Image via digitalmediabuzz

[RonHC]

Who cares...
/sarcasm

[brianlg]

There are rumors and rumblings across the web tonight that Adobe is

Sorry, but I had to stop reading after that.. I'm sick of this rumor bs. Rumors aren't news.

[Vandale]

Interesting

[Wolftamer]

Sue them for what though? Waa, they don't like us and didn't invite us to their party?

[plcrules]

lol watch adobe win but instead of demanding money they make apple put flash on the iphone

[QWood13]

Adobe has no valid reason to sue Apple because of that code, and I doubt that they'll even last a minute in court

[iphone8130hak]

Haha

[chuckiecheese]

who cares...adobe flash sucks...sooner or later flash will be obsolete thanks to apple.

[ikesmasher]

sue apple for what? chosing what they use and dont use in their products? use some common sense adobe.

[iPhone3G[S]]

Sue them for what though? Waa, they don't like us and didn't invite us to their party?

+1

"they wont use our bloated software, wah wah wah, give us money!!"

LOL

no cs5 for me now.

Wouldn't this be like suing CNN.com because they don't use flash? or any website.

[Creative911]

How can they sue another company that don't want to simply say.. use their product... if I was the judge I would laugh adobe out the court room

[Luppin]

Adobe should just stop releasing their software for the Mac platform, Apple will react real quick when they see their market-share start bottoming out. Every person I know who uses a Mac for reasons other than "IT'S SLEEK AND SEXY UNLIKE YOUR BORING WINBLOWS MACHINE LAWL" uses it for professional video/audio/photo editing and without the cutting-edge creative suite from Adobe, they'll quickly be left behind in that market.

[QWood13]

@Luppin, you do realize that if Adobe pulled the plug on Macs, not only would Apple lose some of their market, butthey would too. And besides, I bet that Apple would just come up something just the same, maybe even better than CS5. So, Adobe AND Apple would lose their money. Why would you even suggest that Adobe do that???

[equazian]

ouch that's a real slap to the face. "not good enough" daymm

[whereswaldo]

suing them for what?

[ajjj08]

For all the people that are asking suing them for what, or the judge will just throw it out should really take a look at the laws against monoply.

In economics, a monopoly exists when a specific individual or an enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it. Monopolies are thus characterized by a lack of economic competition for the good or service that they provide and a lack of viable substitute goods. The verb "monopolize" refers to the process by which a firm gains persistently greater market share than what is expected under perfect competition.

Apple in my opinion is in possible violation of monopoly laws with their continuos ban on flash. I'm not saying that flash on the iphone or ipad is a good idea, I am only stating that Adobe MIGHT have a case.

[steve-z17]

Apple can choose to use whatever platform they want, if that turns people away so be it...they'll still dominate the smartphone market. Adobe's just mad that they're getting left behind, they have no real reason to sue Apple.

[z3r01]

lol watch adobe win but instead of demanding money they make apple put flash on the iphone

how can adobe win? they cant obligate apple to do anything

[QWood13]

Gov can't force them to put flash in iDevices because Gov can't get into business affairs