Samsung Ordered To Hand Over Unreleased Designs To Apple 260
An anonymous reader writes with an article in Edible Apple "Samsung last Wednesday was ordered to hand over to Apple five as-of-yet unreleased products so that Apple can compare them to their own offerings ahead of litigation. Apple of course claims that Samsung's products blatantly copy the look and feel of Apple's iOS devices."
Re:Except That Is Completely Incorrect (Score:4, Insightful)
this is 2011 and the Age of Blogs. Get with the program
Who needs information when you have presumption?
Trying to Compete is a Crime? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Helping their cause, Apple presented to the judge a news report which quotes a Samsung executive saying that they will have to improve parts of their upcoming Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in light of the thinner iPad 2 from Apple."
Someone tell me how this is worth anything in the legal world? Of course Samsung would want to improve their product to compete with a product currently on the market. How is this relevant?
Re:no surprise (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean they are rectangular and black with a touchscreen? This is hardly revolutionary design. And Samsung's TVs look just like other TVs - again rectangular and black.
Re:no surprise (Score:4, Insightful)
Nobody but hardcore fanboys* are going to ditch their current TV to buy an Apple-branded television.
Sounds lucrative to me...
Re:Except That Is Completely Incorrect (Score:2, Insightful)
We're not here to learn, we're here to argue. Slashdot is a game, not a news site.
Re:no surprise (Score:5, Insightful)
I shrugged at that myself, but then I've bought Samsung Galaxy S II a few days ago. And you know what? It really tries very hard to look like an iPhone. I don't just mean the full-glass front screen and a hardware "home" button. Their replacement launcher, TouchWiz, is also an iOS lookalike, with four icons on the bottom. App drawer is replaced to work more like iOS, too, with automatic sorting of icons replaced by manual positioning on a number of screens. Heck, they even changed tab switching UI in the browser to look identical to iPhone, except that the close button is (-) instead of (x).
So, it's not just Apple being silly here. Mind you, Samsung beats them on some other points (like screen size and contrast/brightness, or sheer hardware power), but they definitely do copy the design.
Re:Except That Is Completely Incorrect (Score:2, Insightful)
we're here to argue.
No we're not. [mindspring.com]
YES. WE. ARE!!!!!
Re:No Matter How Much I Hate Apple, I Prefer Facts (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't let reality get in the way of your Apple hate.
http://www.economist.com/node/17309237 [economist.com]
"Since 2006 the number of mobile-phone-related patent complaints has increased by 20% annually, according to Lex Machina, a firm that keeps a database of intellectual-property spats in America."
The first iPhone was unveiled by Apple CEO Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007.
So the mobile patent wars started before Apple showed up, Apple just added another litigation happy company with a ton of patents and money to the mix.
Re:coke or pepsi (Score:4, Insightful)
Let me get this straight. If I make a product that is too similar to another already on the market then I gotta give it up? This seems like bullshit if you were to ask me.
If you make a product that looks exactly like the design patent that someone else owns, yes. Just as an example, take an iPhone and a Windows 7 phone. The Windows 7 phone doesn't look one bit like an iPhone. Now take one of these Samsung phones. They don't look one bit like a Windows 7 phone, but they look very, very similar to an iPhone.
Microsoft didn't copy Apple, they designed these phones themselves. Samsung copied. Apple has design patents that list about ten particular design choices, and Samsung copied all of them. Two or three design choices matching could have been coincidence, and most importantly the result would not look like an iPhone. All design choices matching means it looks the same, it is copied, and the copy is illegal.
Re:coke or pepsi (Score:2, Insightful)
And you conveniently forgot - Apple copied LG Prada. What's your point?