Apple sues Samsung for 'copying' the iPhone and iPad

[Duvi]

Dang... anyone think Apple have a legit claim?

"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 these infringing products."

[Source: Android Central]

 

[BSG75]

Well, I think touch wiz does look too apple-ish. I'm not going to bother reading the actual story, though. Who cares? Samsung and Android aren't going anywhere. I don't care anymore about which companies are suing each other.

 

[Verdes8891]

All i got to say is wow, i think Apple is just feeling really threatened by android in general and are being backed into a corner, that they have to do something.

 

[l44l44]

Besides TouchWiz resembling iOS in upfront visual details (grid of icons), I'm consistently reading in these forums of the resemblance between the Galaxy S line and the iPhone 3G/3GS. Apple are a-holes for suing, but I won't argue that they don't have a case. Even the Galaxy Tab apps (Mail and Calendar) are good copies of the parallel apps on the iPad.

Motorola and HTC do just fine coming up with their own interfaces and hardware designs, so Samsung has to start coming up with their own designs soon.

 

[DHart#AC]

All i got to say is wow, i think Apple is just feeling really threatened by android in general and are being backed into a corner, that they have to do something.

That's exactly right. How long have the Samsung products been on the market? A long time. And only now when Samsung market share is beginning to pass Apple does Apple decide to sue. I suppose Ford is probably thinking about suing all of the other car manufacturers now since they all have wheels, a steering wheel, etc.

I know, I know. Ford did not create the first automobile. But you get the idea.

Mr. Jobs is staring at a re-run of Microsoft vs Apple and seeing that Apple will be relegated to niche market status again.

 

[Complex Pants]

Just because the launcher page consists of an 4x4 of icons and it moves left and right? I think apple is just pissed that the galaxy 10.1 tablet is thinner than the iPad 2.

 

[Xopher]

I wonder if this will put any delays for delivering iPhone 5 components.

 

[Castor Troy]

This is just getting ridiculous to be perfectly honest. Saying the phone looks alike? I mean really? There are only so many shapes you can make a candybar phone into. Samsung should have made it round? Come on. This is nuts.

Sounds to me somebody is getting paranoid : )

 

[pazzo02]

Looking at the pictures, I see the resemblance between the devices. My question to Samsung would be why would you want to resemble the iPhone and iOS when android is all about setting devices and the OS apart from Apple?

 

[_JKK_]

I don't think that this is Apple being paranoid, or worried in any way.

I am a fan of Apple, and so are all of you. You all enjoy the Android Market? What about the capacitive touchscreen, or the onscreen keyboard, or various other things (including that WebKit browser)? Apple popularized those with the iPhone. To deny this is silly, ignorant, or ingenious (perhaps I am missing something totally relevant, but... I don't think I am).

They wouldn't just throw this out there unless they felt like they needed some publicity (but that wouldn't make sense, either; there's been no major news lately). They have a case, and one that they feel like they can justify. Apple's lawyers are excellent; they don't just hurl lawsuits every which way. Innovation through litigation isn't their philosophy, but the talent on their legal team could enable them to live by that rule.

However, tell me: is this coincidence?

*disclaimer: I am a blogger for an Apple-focused sight, though my main phone is a DInc*

 

[Duvi]

i must say that i know a few galaxy smartphone owners that have said this about their devices from day 1. heck, i think they got it before it was so familiar.

 

[Complex Pants]

I don't think that this is Apple being paranoid, or worried in any way.

I am a fan of Apple, and so are all of you. You all enjoy the Android Market? What about the capacitive touchscreen, or the onscreen keyboard, or various other things (including that WebKit browser)? Apple popularized those with the iPhone.

However, tell me: is this coincidence?

*disclaimer: I am a blogger for an Apple-focused sight, though my main phone is a DInc*

Actually I would say you are more of a fan of Palm (now HP).

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gsiT4pvaeJM/SPcB9sfvL1I/AAAAAAAAAIs/nzCfJ41zXvM/s400/lifedrive.jpg

I would say that the iPhone looks very similar to Palm's lifedrive. It even has the same resolution, not to mention a slab form factor a central home button, a grid of colorful icons and a device with rounded corners.

The fact is that the iphone borrowed heavily from other devices that came before it. Apple as a company makes wonderful products, but they are rarely original. Apple's main greatness as a company is to take already existing technology and polish and refine it. They did not invent the portable mp3 player, they did not invent the gui and they did not invent the slab smartphone. However, they did refine all of those products.


Sent from my Evo

 

[NoSpin]

Everybody "borrows" from everybody. Apple has done it before, it's just what happens when you release a popular product.

 

[Brianadfl]

I don't think that this is Apple being paranoid, or worried in any way.

I am a fan of Apple, and so are all of you. You all enjoy the Android Market? What about the capacitive touchscreen, or the onscreen keyboard, or various other things (including that WebKit browser)? Apple popularized those with the iPhone. To deny this is silly, ignorant, or ingenious (perhaps I am missing something totally relevant, but... I don't think I am).

They wouldn't just throw this out there unless they felt like they needed some publicity (but that wouldn't make sense, either; there's been no major news lately). They have a case, and one that they feel like they can justify. Apple's lawyers are excellent; they don't just hurl lawsuits every which way. Innovation through litigation isn't their philosophy, but the talent on their legal team could enable them to live by that rule.

However, tell me: is this coincidence?

*disclaimer: I am a blogger for an Apple-focused sight, though my main phone is a DInc*

I like the way you show how the phones look with the apps page open. If you see my home screen(one of 7 btw with different widgets, which apple doesn't have) then you'll see that the only similarity is the 4 basic apps on the bottom. Use a phone to see the difference not compare with genaric web pictures next time. All android app pages look similar when open, not just Samsung.

Apples just reaching with their evil empire hand.

They've become what their original superbowl commercial was against.

Sent from my Epic 4G using Taptalk

 

[ottscay]

I don't think that this is Apple being paranoid, or worried in any way.

Me niether, but I also don't agree with you. I would bet a large sum of money Apple is suing because Samsung if threatening to delay or reduce the availability of parts they need for the iPhone 5, much like they did for AMOLED screens last year to HTC. Samsung has discovered that they need the parts, and they probably have clauses in their contract that allow them to modify the shipment availability if the parts are needed for their own products, and now with the huge success of the Galaxy S and the presumed sales growth of the SII Samsung was letting them know that iPhone 5 parts may not be available in the same quantities are originally assumed. So Apple is suing to provide them with negotiating leverage, and the fact that they are including almost all of the Galaxy S phones (including ones like the Nexus S, which looks almost nothing like any iPhone) tips their hand.

They are basically saying "it's now going to be more expensive to make all your money from Android, as the cost of going to court will eat into your margins, so just make sure you can get us all of the iPhone 5 parts we want and we can come to an out of court settlement.

I am a fan of Apple, and so are all of you. You all enjoy the Android Market? What about the capacitive touchscreen, or the onscreen keyboard, or various other things (including that WebKit browser)? Apple popularized those with the iPhone. To deny this is silly, ignorant, or ingenious (perhaps I am missing something totally relevant, but... I don't think I am).

Apple popularized them, yes. But they didn't invent any of them, and they will have precious little legal standing on any of those if they try to settle in inside a real courtroom. Sadly, lawsuits are almost never about the inside of a courtroom in the corporate world. By the way, things Apple did invent (like a keyboard that predictively enlarges the area of a key it thinks you want to hit in its logic layer - but NOT the visual UI) are not copied, and doing so would indeed result in an easy infringement lawsuit.

They wouldn't just throw this out there unless they felt like they needed some publicity (but that wouldn't make sense, either; there's been no major news lately).

They do indeed need publicity, as it's the only way to try and leverage Samsung.

They have a case, and one that they feel like they can justify. Apple's lawyers are excellent; they don't just hurl lawsuits every which way. Innovation through litigation isn't their philosophy, but the talent on their legal team could enable them to live by that rule.

They have an extremely poor case, and no offense, but your later admission (of being an Apple-leaning blogger) is self-evident by this particular part of your post. There's no evidence that Apple's lawyers are better or worse than any other major consumer electronics company. And they are perfectly happy to innovate through litigation when they feel like it (see the HTC lawsuit as an example). By the way, that HTC suit has no merit, and it has already been recommended that Apple be ruled against in the publics interest, but does that mean the ethical Apple will withdraw their suit? Of course not, they're pulling a Microsoft and trying to increase the cost of competing against them in that case. It's totally anti-competitive. I'm not singling them out, it's business as usual these days, but let's not pretend like Apple is above it.

However, tell me: is this coincidence?

I axed the photo to save space, but that's the Galaxy player...is the player even IN the lawsuit? I haven't read the complaint yet, but no other websites have mentioned it.

Anyways, if Apple took this all the way to a decision and had a very favorable judge they might win a limited settlement on the external design of the Player, and perhaps one of the more obvious physical phone makes. I doubt they can enforce any sort of trademark on "colorful little icons", especially since (as pointed out by others) you have to open the app drawer before you even see a view like that, since Android users generally have widgets (or a beautiful lack of clutter) on their home pages. Apple certainly isn't going to win on most of the phones, the Tab, and would probably get laughed at over the Nexus S line.

But winning isn't the objective, it's to make sure the iPhone5 doesn't get pushed back any more. And it will be very interesting to see what Samsung does. Apple buys a LOT from Samsung, but then Samsung undoubtedly makes better margins whey they sell their own phones. I think Apple needs Samsung here much more than Samsung needs Apple. Samsung stands to lose 4% or so of their revenue if Apple takes their business elsewhere...which is a ton. But at least some of that would be made up by selling more SIIs if there was no iPhone 5 this year; furthermore, if an iPhone5 slipped back into 2012 to a significant degree, Apple would probably cede ground it could never make up in the smartphone market, potentially letting Samsung reap even larger profits in future years.

So yeah, very interesting times, and it will be interesting to see if Apple's move backfires on them.

 

[MegaSoundwave76]

That's pretty good logic in that argument oTTscay. Wish I was a fly on the walls in any of these corporate meetings.

 

[patfactorx]

Motorola should sue em all for making a mobile phone that you hold in 1 hand =op

 

[dekcufi]

Motorola should sue em all for making a mobile phone that you hold in 1 hand =op

Next thing you know apple will sue ever human for using their eyes to see any other touch screen that is not apple branded....

 

[ottscay]

Next thing you know apple will sue ever human for using their eyes to see any other touch screen that is not apple branded....

Don't get me wrong, there's little doubt that the Samsung device (especially the PMP version) looks to have taken some inspiration from past Apple aesthetics. But almost no one ever wins a case like this, and Apple's case is actually even weaker here than most (hey look, Samsung phones totally copied the design we stopped using last year, which is hurting sales. Also, if you open their app drawer then their UI looks quite a lot like the default iOS home screen...).

While I have no insider info, I have little doubt as to the underlying causes I spelled out above (that Apple is trying to apply leverage to Samsung won't hog parts Apple needs for the iPhone5). And if you doubt it, answer this:

Why now? Did no one at Apple notice the Galaxy S when it started to ship almost a year ago? If you gave one whit about the integrity of your design, why not nip it in the bud before it can ship en masse? And even if it's just about lost sales, why wait until the product has sold incredibly well (and hence having already lost those sales)??? Especially why now, when Samsung is sunsetting the Galaxy S design and moving on to the Galaxy SII, which is quite distinctive from Apple products? How will Apple argue that last years Samsung hardware that looked to be somewhat inspired by the previous years Apple hardware is costing them money now? And how will they apply any of this to the Galaxy Tab (which is pretty much impossible to mistake for an iPad), or to the Galaxy S line (which also looks almost nothing like Apple hardware, and doesn't look anything like their OS to boot)?

It's nothing but attempted leverage. And the fact that Samsung's PR has mentioned that Apple buys a lot of parts from them while also mentioning that they are considering launching a counter-suit over some obscure (and probably largely bogus) patent shows that Samsung knows exactly what time of day it is, and is not about to give in just to take the easy road; at the least they are letting Apple twist in the wind a little until they can figure out what is the best deal for Samsung (by the way, I don't pretend to be able to calculate what the trade off is in terms of potentially selling more Galaxy phones vs the known loss of selling parts to Apple...and even Samsung has to guess at how different choices might translate to future market share).

 

[pazzo02]

Next up... Apple sues Google for making Android better than iOS.