back to article Galaxy Nexus cleared for sale by US court

The patent pendulum has taken a small swing in Samsung’s direction, with a US court clearing the company’s ageing Galaxy Nexus phone for sale in the US. The decision, by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, follows a ruling earlier this month that allowed the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to go on sale. District judge Lucy Koh …

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  1. gkroog
    Linux

    Thank you US Court of Appeals!

    Common sense has prevailed in Apple's "thermonuclear" war of litigation, and an innovation-stifling nuclear winter of Apple's shiny-shiny selling in a competition-free environment has been avoided :D

    Now, all that needs to be done is for tech companies to truss up their IP withpatents so that their are no "great ideas" for Apple to "shamelessly steal" (as per a 1996 interview with Steve Jobs: so its ok for Apple to take other peoples ideas, not ok for anyone else...) And Apple will find thenselves really having to invent something on their own.

    1. Shagbag

      Tomfoolery

      This highlights the pointlessness of Apple and Microsoft's War on Android.

      Samsung has such a rapid delivery channel that it can re-design/push updates that obviates any claims filed by Apple/Microsoft.

      The key is giving consumers what they want. And they want Android.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Tomfoolery

        Basically most consumers do not care / know if it's Android or whatever. They want something that looks like an iPhone - I've met people before who call their 'other' tablet computers iPads and 'other' smartphones iPhones.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Tomfoolery

          Sir/Madam, you must keep the company of idiots.

        2. paulc
          Alert

          the iPad name...

          Apple didn't innovate that name... do some googling... they had to buy the company that originally had an iPad on the market so they could get the rights to the trademark.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Tomfoolery

          No different than calling a Vacuum cleaner a Hoover....

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Thank you US Court of Appeals!

      Blah Blah - stop trolling Samsung PR Dept.

  2. Gob Smacked
    WTF?

    Wonderful... NOT

    A whiff of good news and then:

    "Microsoft’s lead counsel in that case says Google will be added as a defendant in the case, based on a 1995 patent it says is infringed by the Chocolate Factory’s maps."

    BAM.

    There once was a time when patents were about protecting the little men. This is clearly not the case anymore.

    I'll start advocating getting rid of them altogether, just for myself and whoever wants to hear my reasons for it. I hope every sensible Registrar may follow suit. Just get the ball rolling. It will eventually hit some influential persons probably...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Wonderful... NOT

      What I can't understand is how a patent that is 17 years old suddenly surfaces. If Google have just started using it then if they don't want to licence it then work round it. If its been in maps for years then why are Microsoft now only raising the issue - surely you have a responsibility to enforce your patents? Sitting on it for 17 years and doing nothing until its totally embedded and hard to remove would sound like some sort of "sting"

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Wonderful... NOT

        And I've just found the patent and its the usually pile of steaming shit that we've come to expect from Software patents :

        "A map of the area of a client computer (10) is requested from a map server (11). Information relating to a place of interest is requested from an information server (12) by the client computer (10). The information is superimposed or overlaid on a map image at a position on the map image corresponding to the location of the place of interest on the map. The information (or "overlay") server (12) may contain details of, for example, hotels, restaurants, shops or the like, associated with the geographical coordinates of each location. The map server (11) contains map data, including coordinate data representing the spatial coordinates of at least one point on the area represented by the map."

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Wonderful... NOT

          Certainly in the UK, Any one of numerous Utility company GIS's were doing this two decades ago, Except with pipework, pumps and other paraphenalia. (Sometimes those buried valves and loggers are dfficult to find without a map)

          I worked on one shortly after i left Uni, Trying to remember when that was though. It certainly wasnt later than 1995,

        2. John G Imrie

          Re: Wonderful... NOT

          A map of the area of a client computer (10) is requested from a map server (11). Information relating to a place of interest is requested from an information server (12) by the client computer (10).

          This should be easy to work around, don't have separate map and information servers.

  3. dssf

    See, Karma can be a

    Well, we know it seems to be in this case.

  4. Aqua Marina

    Not being an American

    Can someone explain to me why the decision is referred back to the old judge for reconsideration? Can she reconsider, and then uphold the ban?

    1. Ty Cobb
      Childcatcher

      Re: Not being an American

      I see it as a legal, you F'd it up - you fix it. They give the original court the chance to fix issues they have ruled on, rather than a review of the whole case. By and large, the upper courts only rule on narrow portions of a case.

  5. Rob Crawford

    I'm wondering how unified search on a computer is different from a unified search on a mobile phone.

    Considering that a mobile phone is a fecking computer that can make phone calls.I don't see the difference.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The problem is Samsung so 'blatantly' copied it in the first place Apple felt it had to defend it's position. People get this if it was copying (so exactly) one of their products or something like a Dyson - but when Samsung just set out to clone the iPhone that's somehow 'ok'.

    1. Schultz
      Thumb Down

      Apple vesus Dyson

      Dyson invented a new way to catch the dust in a vacuum cleaner.

      Apple invented the phone

      Apple invented the portable computer phone

      Apple invented the touch interface

      Apple invented the rounded square

      Apple invented the icons

      Apple invented the swipe gesture

      Apple built a nice phone

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All these companies are as bad as each other - Samsung were a major supplier to Apple but decided they wanted more of the cake for themselves. It's a big gamble now they have lost / will lose Apple as a customer and what happens if next year HTC, Asus, Motorola or ?? make a better Android handset.

    1. HandleOfGod

      "Samsung were a major supplier to Apple but decided they wanted more of the cake for themselves. It's a big gamble now they have lost / will lose Apple as a customer"

      Eh? How have they lost the battle? Last time I looked Samsung had come from virtually nowhere to being the best selling brand in the smart phone market. We obviously have very different definitions of "lose". I rather doubt the execs at Sammy had never considered this possibility when planning their long term strategy.

      As for what if HTC etc make a better Droid - what does that have to do with it? I don't have a Sammy, personally, and I don't particularly like them but I can't see them going anywhere any time soon. The market place has room for a number of OEM's and they'll all be jostling for position all the time, that's the way it goes.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dyson invented <strike>a new way to catch the dust in a vacuum cleaner.</strike>

    http://www.google.com/patents/US3425192?printsec=abstract&dq=vacuum+cleaner+cyclone&ei=Bg54UMi9K4HS0QXLkoGwDw#v=onepage&q=vacuum%20cl

    eaner%20cyclone&f=false

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