Apple secures Australian ban on sale of new Samsung Galaxy tablet
APPLE HAS SECURED a temporary ban against the sale of Samsung’s new Galaxy tablet in Australia in the ongoing patent battle between the tech rivals.
The Federal Court ruling granted an injunction against the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in its current form in Australia until a further court order is issued or the patent dispute between the two companies is resolved.
Apple filed the Australian complaint in July, claiming Samsung had copied its touch screen technology. It is not clear if Samsung could attempt to sell an alternative version of the device if the features cited in the complaint were removed.
That patent dispute has been fought in ten countries and the latest ruling comes as a blow to Samsung’s aims to launch the tablet in time for Australia’s Christmas market. In a statement, the company said it was “disappointed” with the court ruling and that it “will be seeking legal advice on its options”.
“Samsung will continue its legal proceeding against Apple’s claim in order to ensure our innovative products remain available to consumers,” the statement continued, adding that it will “continue to legally assert” its intellectual property rights against those who violate its patents and “free ride on our technology”.
It has filed a counterclaim accusing Apple of infringing on its wireless technology patents.
Meanwhile, Samsung recently announced plans to file for injunctions against the sale of Apple’s latest iPhone in France and Italy over the continuing patent battle.
Patents fights are genuinely destroying the industry.
It's sad, I know of a number of products that will not be built by smaller manufacturers because they don't have a big enough patent portfolio to protect themselves.
One case I know of, the proposal was to make a *thing* based on a particular technology. The technology was new, but the thing was, well, it looked very different to products of its ilk on the market, but how it worked was similar.
The expected profit margin was very healthy.
But because they were a startup, they simply couldn't go ahead with it. They found that the entire profit margin (plus some) would have had to be paid in licenses (despite the fact that it was a relatively simple, yet smart device). Otherwise, they would have been sued out of existence.
Microsoft are killing Android through royalty payments too.
UK judge rules that Samsung’s Galaxy tablets aren’t cool enough to infringe on Apple’s iPad
In a ruling that’s both good news for Samsung and an insult to its products, Judge Colin Birss has decided that consumers wouldn’t confuse Samsung’s Galaxy Tab tablets with the iPad because the former simply aren’t as cool.
Samsung’s tablets “do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design,” said the judge in London’s High Court of Justice, adding, “They are not as cool.”
The UK court ruled that the Samsung devices’ thinner shape and details on the back make them distinctively different from Apple’s iPad.
Happy with the result of the case (if not a little burned by the judge’s comments), Samsung released a statement saying, “Should Apple continue to make excessive legal claims in other countries based on such generic designs, innovation in the industry could be harmed and consumer choice unduly limited.”
Apple continues to fight with Samsung and other manufacturers in patent cases in a number of countries and, in the US, has succeeded in securing a block on sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 ahead of the trial.
Apple has 21 days as of yesterday to appeal the UK court’s decision.
what is the consensus on these battles. I haven't read much and haven't been keeping track of all of them, but from what i have read it seems Apple are winning the majority of them. Is this the right assumption?
what is the consensus on these battles. I haven't read much and haven't been keeping track of all of them, but from what i have read it seems Apple are winning the majority of them. Is this the right assumption?
Not really. The Samsung battle seems to be fairly evenly matched. HTC they seem to be getting a bit of an edge (but Google are fighting back via HTC), Motorola seem to be a bit ahead of them, and Nokia have seriously pwned them, some estimates of royalty payments to Nokia are €400M a year. That's a fight they should have run the fuck away from at the start.
Google bought Motorola Mobility for the patent pool, and as the MOT stuff is pretty fundamental, they will knock a few chunks out of Apple.
They're winning some, losing some. The Samsung one is the most evenly balance, but also the most bitterly disputed.
It's an utter disaster for the industry though. It's killed new handset innovation stone dead, if you're not certain you won't get sued on a new formfactor, you don't do it. In addition, the barriers to entry in the business are getting sky high, outside China. Chinese companies just don't give a fuck, because any firm that really hammers the Chinese will get destroyed in China, and chucked out of there so quickly, they'll not know what hit them.
So basically, expect the next generation of handsets to be from a very small pool of established operators with massive patent pools, and the Chinese. The idea of trying to start up a handset company in the west (and I have seriously looked into this for work), is simply not workable any more as a result of this.
UK judge rules that Samsung’s Galaxy tablets aren’t cool enough to infringe on Apple’s iPad
In a ruling that’s both good news for Samsung and an insult to its products, Judge Colin Birss has decided that consumers wouldn’t confuse Samsung’s Galaxy Tab tablets with the iPad because the former simply aren’t as cool.
Samsung’s tablets “do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design,” said the judge in London’s High Court of Justice, adding, “They are not as cool.”
The UK court ruled that the Samsung devices’ thinner shape and details on the back make them distinctively different from Apple’s iPad.
Happy with the result of the case (if not a little burned by the judge’s comments), Samsung released a statement saying, “Should Apple continue to make excessive legal claims in other countries based on such generic designs, innovation in the industry could be harmed and consumer choice unduly limited.”
Apple continues to fight with Samsung and other manufacturers in patent cases in a number of countries and, in the US, has succeeded in securing a block on sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 ahead of the trial.
Apple has 21 days as of yesterday to appeal the UK court’s decision.
A US jury has ordered Samsung to pay more than $1 billion (€799 million) in damages to Apple in a sweeping victory for the iPhone maker in the ongoing legal battle between the two companies.
The jury found Samsung had infringed on several of Apple’s patents and copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad.
The figure was less than half of the $2.5 billion Apple had sought from Samsung. The company is also seeking a ban on sales of some of Samsung’s key products.
The ruling could also mean new legal troubles for smartphone makers that sell devices based on Google’s Android system.
The jury deliberated for less than three days before delivering the verdict on seven Apple patent claims and five Samsung patent claims - suggesting that the nine-person panel had little difficulty in concluding that Samsung had copied the iPhone and the iPad.
Apple's charges that Samsung copied its designs and features are widely viewed as an attack on Google and its Android software, which drives Samsung's devices and has become the most-used mobile software.
The long running legal battle between the two firms has seen around 30 legal actions filed across four continents. Apple has accused its rival of “slavishly” copying the iPhone and iPad. Samsung, for its part, has filed a number of counter-suits.
Early yesterday a South Korean court found that both companies shared blame, ordering Samsung to stop selling 10 products including its Galaxy S II phone and banning Apple from selling four different products, including its iPhone 4.
But the trial on Apple's home turf - the world's largest and most influential technology market - is considered the most important.
Although the companies go head to head in the smartphone market, they are also business partners, with a $5 billion supply relationship. Apple is Samsung's biggest customer for microprocessors and other parts central to Apple's devices.
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