Apple triumphs over Samsung in landmark patent case

[N3bu]

Quote:

(Reuters) - Apple Inc scored a sweeping legal victory over Samsung on Friday as a U.S. jury found the Korean company had copied critical features of the hugely popular iPhone and iPad and awarded the U.S. company $1.05 billion in damages.

Quote:

Earlier on Friday, a South Korean court found that both companies shared blame for patent infringement, ordering Samsung to stop selling 10 products including its Galaxy S II phone and banning Apple from selling four different products, including its iPhone 4.

Good Job Apple, good to know consumers will likely be getting the short end of it.

I'm just waiting for the news to break where American consumers will only ever be allowed to buy Apple products. God forbid Apple had to actually make a competitive product with a descent Operating System.

[AnarchoPhiliac]

HEY MAN. RECTANGLES WITH ROUNDED CORNERS ARE INNOVATIVE.

[God Emperor Akhenaton]

I prefer PC over Apple, but I don't see any reason to hate the company.

[N3bu]

God Emperor Akhenaton

I prefer PC over Apple, but I don't see any reason to hate the company.

Other then their gunning to injunction the sale of any product that remotely competes with them in America? Samsung isn't being totally innocent about it either.

Honestly, I'm getting sick of copyright laws, it's just become a weapon by produces to continue to ******** consumers in the a**. Like they don't try hard enough as it is to take our first born. Software/tech companies are among the worst behind the media industry.

[N3bu]

Also, I'm going to be honest about what I believe here and spit at the American legal system some (sorry Liz).

Quote:

The jury decided Samsung infringed six out of seven Apple patents in the case, and that Apple had not infringed any of Samsung's patents. Apple's protected technology includes the ability for a mobile device to distinguish one finger on the screen or two, the design of screen icons, and the front surface of the phone.

I'm not entirely sure that given the current political climate in the US, I feel it's likely that this decision was reached more because Apple was American and Samsung was Korean, more then anything else.

[METALFumasu]

Oh great. As if we didn't have enough iShit to deal with. Now it looks like it's going to be our only option?

To be fair though, this is partially the fault of the pathetic marketing divisions of Apple's competitors that made zero attempts to market their product post-launch [I'm looking at you Microsoft. Zune could've been a decent competitor to the iPod IF YOU'D ACTUALLY MARKETED IT MORE!!]

Considering Samsung's almost definitely going to appeal, this could go on for awhile.

As the Zen Master says, "We'll see."

[Noogie]

Absolutely disgusted with this result. Minimalist designs, like those of Apple's, should never be allowed in claims of trade dress abuse. Software is essentially mathematics, there is no ifs or buts around it, it should not be patentable. And if people think that companies shouldn't compare their products against their competitors to make a better product (and I say the Samsung products are, but feel free to disagree), then I want to know what they're smoking and make it illegal, because ******** them.

The United States patent system is broken. You need reform to stop these patent-chaser (because ambulance chasers don't get the big bucks) lawsuits from continuing.

[The Infamous Unami]

Apple innovated a great deal, both in terms of hardware and software. That innovation took risk, and needed to be financed. Unless they are allowed to properly profit from that innovation, such innovation will be discouraged in the future. While I too think that some of the claims in the suit were a stretch, some of them weren't.

All that aside, I wonder how they came up with a nice round number like 1 BILLION DOLLARS to award as damages...

[Wendigo]

Touchscreens that use two fingers - nobody could have predicted that one.

[Noogie]

The Infamous Unami

Apple innovated a great deal, both in terms of hardware and software. That innovation took risk, and needed to be financed. Unless they are allowed to properly profit from that innovation, such innovation will be discouraged in the future. While I too think that some of the claims in the suit were a stretch, some of them weren't.

All that aside, I wonder how they came up with a nice round number like 1 BILLION DOLLARS to award as damages...

The LG Prada was outed before the iPhone was announced (virtually a month), it's a rounded-corner rectangular device with a capacitive touch-screen, the GUI buttons use common elements to indicate what they're for.

I am yet to be convinced that Samsung copied Apple. I know there were internal documents which Apple waved a big stick at as proof of Samsung copying. It's clear to me that if you want a chunk of someone's audience, you need to see what they're doing and try to improve on it. Of course there will be documents glossing over it, but I've not seen one Samsung phone that mimicked an iPhone to the point of indistinction, whether by grace of a shitty plastic back or capacitive buttons on the front. Seriously, the ChiPhones are the slavish copies that Apple should be cracking down on, not their (Apple's) suppliers.

[Noogie]

Wendigo

Touchscreens that use two fingers - nobody could have predicted that one.

My legally blind friend, just back from Melbourne but awkwardly positioned in the next room with his iPad, has informed me that pinch to zoom is an absolute must to be able to read things for him. I'd go as far to say it should be available on reasonable terms on that alone, if not just for the fact it's an obvious evolution of a touch screen.

That said.

[Old Blue Collar Joe]

METALFumasu

Oh great. As if we didn't have enough iShit to deal with. Now it looks like it's going to be our only option?

To be fair though, this is partially the fault of the pathetic marketing divisions of Apple's competitors that made zero attempts to market their product post-launch [I'm looking at you Microsoft. Zune could've been a decent competitor to the iPod IF YOU'D ACTUALLY MARKETED IT MORE!!]

Considering Samsung's almost definitely going to appeal, this could go on for awhile.

As the Zen Master says, "We'll see."

Apple sucks a** and is over-rated hipster crap.

[Wendigo]

Old Blue Collar Joe

Apple sucks a** and is over-rated hipster crap.

Also, overpriced considerably.

[N3bu]

The Infamous Unami

Apple innovated a great deal, both in terms of hardware and software. That innovation took risk, and needed to be financed. Unless they are allowed to properly profit from that innovation, such innovation will be discouraged in the future. While I too think that some of the claims in the suit were a stretch, some of them weren't.

All that aside, I wonder how they came up with a nice round number like 1 BILLION DOLLARS to award as damages...

You would have a point....

IF this situation didn't reek of Apple considering the entire concept of a "phone" as their intellectual property.

The reality is that the patent industry has not adapted well to the Media and Tech industries for consumers, producers don't want to admit it because it is basically like a free monopoly that they don't really need to work for.

[Complex Systems]

I've grown increasingly tired of copyright laws. I think there is a certain realm to protect truly innovative products, but this week we've also seen rulings over gene patents, as well as the Apple ruling, which dealt with a lot of things that were "no d'uh" innovations.

I owned an iPhone3 and now own the Galaxy S II, the two are nothing alike.