So it has been an interesting couple of weeks in the patent wars between Apple and Samsung.
The first being the court ordered injunction against sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia. This hasn’t done so much as hurt Samsung, but has helped it get overwhelming publicity for its expected release in early September.
Then there was Apple’s case against Samsung in the Netherlands which has now seen Apple win against the Smartphone manufacturer with the Courts coming close to banning the Galaxy S, Galaxy SII & Galaxy Ace from being sold within the European Union.
But what did Apple really win?
The only patent upheld by the courts is patent 868, which addresses the scrolling between photo’s on a touchscreen (and how it bounces back after a short swipe). All other claims by Apple such as Samsung copying look & feel and duplicating swipe to unlock were deemed to not infringe. The LG Prada has the iPhone look & feel beat as it was released in 2007 before the iPhone. The lockscreen claims were covered with the relatively unknown Neonode N1m, which had the same lockscreen implementation back in 2005. The operating system likeness was defended citing the Nokia 7710, which had a grid style layout.
Samsung said at the end of the case it plans to remedy the gallery similarities through a Software update sent out over the air and it won’t affect any Samsung Galaxy sales in Europe.
So this could have been a bad move by Apple at the end of the day. It now means there is precedence set with their claims of others stealing likeness and could help to overturn other court cases between Apple and Android manufacturers in other countries. The judge also mentions that by having such a minimalist design, the iPad basically makes itself less viable for design protection.
It’s a miniscule victory for Apple, but could be a much larger victory for Android partners around the world, especially with recent news of Steve Jobs stepping down as CEO of Apple.
Great post Irwin, this is the best breakdown to the case and why only one patent help up against the others.
I actually owned an LG Prada (i’m sure i still have it somewhere…). Such a crappy phone hehehe
Suck it up apple, competitiveness means competitiveness. Try it some day
Maybe apple plan was to stall sales all along rendering the galaxy tab lifespan much shorter and next Gen ipad release sooner then we think? It has been a long time coming…but then we are prob all aware Samsung tends to be a lil later than they should to market anyhow. Imagine how many they would have sold if they had planned a lil better and released this two months ago…not that I’d like to see other manufacturers suffer but I think galaxy 10.1 would have dominated the android scene and given the ipad a fair run for its money.… Read more »
Good article Irwin. I wonder how the gallery will be redone
“photo’s”, “precedence”, etc. If you guys want a proof reader, let me know.
yeah seriously, hire someone as a proof reader. i’d also be happy to do it
you need to better your grammar and punctuation before offering to become a proof reader
I’m confused, could you please point out the corrections in grammar and punctuation I need to make in my comment, apart from making “i” a capital?
It’s a blog. =/
How in the hell can they patent how to scroll through photos in the first place..the patent office really has no idea what it is doing…
Long term and in the bigger picture it is a win for Android
Can it really be enforceable over all Europe? I was under the impression that software patents aren’t valid all over.
Well I’m not very familiar with the law over there but I guess it’s possible in the European Union.
you might want to mention that the swipe to unlock patent was also invalidated
This is good to see. I’m glad that judges/magistrates are not being conned by the Apple PR/marketing/legal team juggernaut. There are only so many ways you can put a rectangular screen in a portable device. Personally though, I love the Space Odyssey argument and would love to see Samsung press on with this.