Apple sues Samsung over Galaxy look-and-feel Apple has sued Samsung for allegedly copying the iOS look-and-feel in its line of Galaxy smartphones and tablets. "Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smart phone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple's technology, user interface and innovative style in …
Better strip all those..
type TShapeType = (stRectangle, stSquare, stRoundRect, stRoundSquare, stEllipse, stCircle)
enum TShapeType { stRectangle, stSquare, stRoundRect, stRoundSquare, stEllipse, stCircle };
references to 'round' things out of programming languages and recompile Planet Earth before the Sue Fest moves to the next level.
Watch out AutoDesk and other vendors of MechCAD software. Did you not know that you were only supposed to supply the arc/bevel function to Apple?
Next up Ford Sues Toyota + Dog for putting engines in cars and fitting round wheels.
I thought that you needed to claim that a patent or something was infringed in order to sue...
I mean yeah, they do look very much the same, and the iThingies were inspiration but I am not sure that is illegal in any way... (and it is not clear to me that the design had never been used before)
I take it that aiming at a semi-friendly furnisher is a preparation for the big target starting with G.
copyright out of whole cloth. It is making it impossible to implement obvious simple solutions to programming problems. Well, in the US at least, which is where the lawsuit is being filed. Things might be better in Ol' Blighty, but from comments I've read here, it's probably not by much.
This means in practice that Cupertino have decided to sue *everybody*, merely starting with Samsung in the formal sense. The implications of the way they have framed their claim appear to be so widely drawn that they appear to be (in practice) demanding that everybody else get out of the smartphone business. They have had the lead in this market for the last 3 - 4 years or so but that (as was inevitable in a market growing at such a rate) lead has slipped. One simple question can be posed. Why now? Why did they not fire off a writ the moment that they saw the launch of the Galaxy S - if it was such a clear violation of their IP? Apple have apparently decided to declare war on the rest of the smartphone market - not the smartest move one could imagine. The company appears to have decided that vexatious litigation rather than impressive innovation is the way forward from now on.
"Expect a settlement of this lawsuit, perhaps with a few interface tweaks and possibly some licensing cash flowing from Seoul to Cupertino."
If that happens, I am dumping Samsung as my personal supplier of phone and tablet devices.
It's also beyond a joke that apple is taking issue with the rounded corners of the phone itself. Rounded corners on a product such as a phone is almost a requirement, due to the (admittedly small) chance of the damage that could be caused to the device, or even to the user, a child, small animal, etc of being hit with the sharp corner when the device is dropped.
Where the hell is the anti-trust case against Apple!
Just look at the top 2 images.
Let's be honest the Galaxy is an exact rip-off of iPhone.
The placing o/t hard button. The screen with the similar looking icons, the dark gray bottom bar with 4 buttons. Every reviewer said so in their review that the Galaxy looked remarkable like an iPhone.
Techradar January: "...the chassis looks decidedly similar too,"
Gadgetreview.org: "Hij ziet er misschien uit als een iPhone-clone, maar daar eindigen de gelijkenissen." (translated as "he maybe looks like an iPhone Clone but that's where the similarities end")
trustedreviews: "Obviously there's the general feeling of homage to the iPhone,"- notice the word "obviously"?
And the list goes on...
As if Samsung is just defied Apple. Makes me wonder how many ppl actually bought one thinking it was a (cheaper) iPhone clone.
"Let's be honest the Galaxy is an exact rip-off of iPhone."
Then the iPhone is a rip-off of my vintage Sony Ericsson if all you can do is gape at a grid of icons or a commonplace shape and think someone should have a monopoly on it.
Samsung should cultivate their other customer relationships and leave Apple to struggle making their own chipsets, especially since a bunch of the semiconductor people Apple "acquired" have since jumped ship.
It was pointed out that Xerox's work was prior art and the case was pretty much laughed out of court. The MS Office deal was when Apple were close to bankruptcy and MS needed an excuse that they didn't have a monopoly.
Look and feel might apply to luxury items like clothing and jewellery but consumer electronics? Or is Apple getting out of the market and preparing to be in luxury goods only? I can't see this case going very far as it would set a horrible precedent.
Someone might want to show the idiots at Apple an HP45, yes, rounded corners have been around for quite a while. Next thing Apple will sue over is a phone with a battery, a case that doesn't have wires hanging out or using a screen with color. Apple - what looser's!
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iThingees are not the only innovative products.. Maybe nokia should sue apple for front facing cameras. I'm sure they're not the first touch screen device as well.
Hopefully Google will win the bid for nortels patent portfolio and end this silliness for once and all.
From my Samsung galaxy s
I think you'll find you're 18 days late with this news item.
Or at least I hope you are! This is one of the most ridiculous law suits I've heard of in a while (since some daft bint in the US sued an RV company). How far will they go with this stupidity? Do they specify the exact radius limits that they will sue over?
I never thought I'd worry about Apple's smartphone / tablet market-share in the face of the opposition, not for a good few years anyway, but if they honestly believe this is how they are going to beat the competition, rather than simply having a great / better product, then perhaps we should all be worried.
Yes, the Iphone4 and the Galaxy phone do share a resemblance, but if I had any sort of Apple product I would be hanging my head in shame. And if Samsung capitulate, being an owner of some of their products, I will hang my head in shame.
Why?
It's what lawyers do to earn their pay. There's nothing actually wrong with this once you understand every company would shut-down all their competition if they possibly could.
If Apple's/Samsung's/Whoever lawyers weren't doing stupid things like this their shareholders would be going crazy looking for different lawyers who would.
Now to ethical/rational people like you and me - this is obviously silly. But when was the business world ever 'ethical'?
Y'see, I know that these are rational business decisions made by hard-nosed people in suits that probably cost more than my car, but the emergent phenomena look an awful like petulant three-year-olds scrapping over a favourite stuffed toy in the nursery playground.
Good grief, if an infant can get their head around the concept of sharing, why can't a corporation? And the thing is, almost every item of consumer electronics has rouded corners now, and this has been true since way before the iWhatever came out. It simply makes sense with anything that's going into a pocket or being held in a hand. And a touchscreen UI will end up looking similar as well. it's convergent evolution; it's also why the silhouette of a penguin (bird), dolphin (mammal) and shark (fish) all look similar.
If I were the judge, I'd sentence the senior execs of BOTH sides to enforced sessions with Barney and Big Bird until they learned to play nice... No parole. Cruel and unusual, perhaps, but justified.
I don't like Apple Inc.
They always played the poor underdog until they became a mean beast themselves. They became rich and powerfull with the help of all the app developers... and now screw them big.
That said... In the case of the IPhone design vs the Samsung Galaxy S I believe Samsung did a poor job and merely copied the IPhone design instead of being creative themselves. When I first saw the Galaxy S I first thought of it as a IPhone clone.
The IPad vs the Galaxy tablet however I see much less infringements (but still very little creativity from Samsung)
a touch screen device that you hold in your hand, control with your finger and carry in your pocket, without compromising the basic physical requirements? Do we expect paperback books to look different depending on the publisher? Is Apple trying to claim that icons with rounded corners are its own innovation?
Any excuse not to spend money on your own r&d. We all know they are engineering geeks who would be out of place in an art course, psych, law or just about anything really.
Look at the sorry state of ugly linux fonts and icons for all that time before they found starving artists drunk on cheap Chillean wine to do some finger painting for them.
Paris cus she gets sum mo than your average freetard!
"Any excuse not to spend money on your own r&d."
Well, I think Samsung should give Apple the opportunity to do without Samsung's extensive R&D *and* manufacturing contributions to the iGadgets. A few quarters later and they (along with buffoons like yourself) would be considerably less smug.
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It's not so much Jobs looking for the brain transplant as Apple. The last time he left, they almost did too. His next exit looks to be a bit more permanent, even if he stays amongst the living. When corporations lose their ability to innovate, they turn to their lawyers instead. Apple haven't shown much ability to innovate without at least one of Jobs or Woz.
I believe that St Steve of Cupertino is on medical leave right now.
Actually, weren't the last round of "look 'n feel" lawsuits from Apple fired off when they were jobsless? Do they really not have *anyone* else in that company who can find their own arse without using Google Streetview?
Next week: Next iPhone to ship with 2.1 speaker system, badged as the "New Tone"....
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