Posted on 08/27/2012 6:33:19 AM PDT by Loud Mime
SAN JOSE, Calif.—Apple Inc.'s sweeping court victory over Samsung Electronics Co. cements its dominance of the wireless industry and could force carriers, and even Google Inc., to re-evaluate their product plans and strategies.
Interviews with jurors and legal experts reveal that Friday's verdict in the patent dispute did much more than order the South Korean company to pay $1.05 billion to its Silicon Valley rival.
The nine jurors here also sent a signal that companies need to be much more careful in incorporating basic design elements in their electronic devices, particularly those affecting the way gadgets look and feel.
----------- Several stories at the link, pick what you'd like
And an interesting video is here.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
ping
The biggest victor in this may very well be Microsoft. I expect Windows Phone to get more attention from OEMs now. They clearly didn’t copy iPhone, plus they have licenses between apple and MS that prevent them from suing each other.
Ah yes. "Monopoly is always bad and anti-trust is good," unless it is a government sanctioned cross-licensing monopoly among well lawyered mega-corps.
It’d be a shame if one idiot jury were to burden our tech sector with such bogus look-and-feel claims.
Square corners with rounded edges? The Apple expert even testified that all four corners being identical was critical, whereas that’s not the case with Samsung’s designs at all.
What would happen if the same standard were set in fashion or auto design or refrigerators or just about anything else?
How can Apple patent a rectangle?
Samsung and all others can easily argue that 16:9 format is THE ACCEPTED VIDEO STANDARD
I don’t believe in SLAPP suits or their associated “patents”. No more Apple products for me.
The Koreans I know are mad about this verdict; “what do you expect from a US jury in California?”
Hey, look what happened to OJ!
Being a technologist, and a Patent holder, and the owner of a Samsung phone, and a detail watcher of the lawsuit while it was in court (Twitter actually does a credible job of giving you near realtime on what is said..) I think two things are evident. That Apple’s lawyers did a better job than Samsungs, while the Samsung lawyers had their hands tied by the Magistrate Judge and the Court Judge both. The second thing I observed was that the jury itself was just as bad as the OJ jury! There was a “patent holder” on the jury that served as Foreman - and he may have lead the other jurors around by the nose. The way he reached his conclusions are suspect in my mind.
I’ve been observer of Silicon Valley shenanigans for a long time. Apple has ALWAYS been one that didn’t like competition. they have played the “Look and Feel” card more than once. The first was against Microsoft in the late 80s -where they LOST. I think the Utility patents should have been tossed out on their ears - Rectange with round edges...SHEESH!
Long and short of it - this trial will do as much damage to innovation as the Google Vs Oracle trial would have if Oracle had prevailed. It sets a TERRIBLE precedent.
If it’s HTC copying apple then they may be hosed. But if Microsoft did they have license agreements between both companies. Plus Microsoft will protect OEM if sued for IP infringement.
You get what you pay for. With Google they pay $0 and they get zero legal protection for the IP google stole.
I purchased a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 because I wanted an Android OS. I want to write software for Android. I don’t like Apple’s product. All their victory does is damage my investment in a competitors product. I like Apple even less now.
fremont_steve, you need to re-think your position a bit. Apple lost in Korea and, to my knowledge, no American company has ever prevailed in a Japanese IP court. This has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with stealing IP and then having your government(s) defend your Chaebol or Keiretsu in order to form an export consortium that dominates the international market.
This happened with stereo and television. No U.S. company exists in these markets other than as niche players. So, we are finally getting wise to the export bullies and leveling the playing field. It’s about time.
Thanks for the information!
I am a recent AppleHead and like their products. That said, as I read about the lawsuit’s issues I felt that Samsung had the better case. With my little knowledge I was surprised that Apple prevailed.
Your information about the jury hit a note with me. A couple of years ago I sat on a jury for a month. We could not talk about the case until it was handed to us. But I could identify two people who were making claims about their expertise in matters related to the case as we sat around and chatted with each other.
Sounds like the foreman on this Apple/Samsung trial may have had an agenda.
They all follow what Apple does and then bitch about Apple. It wasn’t that many years ago Apple was all but considered dead and buried. Times have changed and will change again.
They all follow what Apple does and then bitch about Apple. It wasn’t that many years ago Apple was all but considered dead and buried. Times have changed and will change again.
First please consider my own qualifications on the subject matter. Second - consider that the you are incorrect about the Korean case. Both Samsung AND Apple were found to infringe each other’s technology. Finally - the Apple patents are crap! They shouldn’t have received patents, i.e. the IP protection you are trying to claim SHOULDN’T exist due to amongst other things, vast amounts of prior art. How do I know that - Please look at the first sentence in this post.
Save for comment later.
Does anyone have a transcript of the basis for thr decision? My understanding is that an idea cannot be copyrighted or patented. Only the implementation of the idea (otherwise we would all be driving Fords.)
If the hardware and the code for the implementation was created cleanly, with no attempt to actually steal Apple's code, I don't see how this happened.
Of course, if Samsung reverse engineered things and lifted the code directly, they deserve whatever they got.
In high tech, laziness or cleverness is a huge hand grenade waiting to go off. I assume Samsung also has good lawyers to prevent this sort of thing..
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