German Injunction Against Sale of Galaxy Tab 10.1 Upheld

[gnasher729]

There are only so may ways to design a tablet with a landscape orientation. Tablets are pretty much slabs with a screen on top. Regardless of design choice, you would end up a rectangular slab with a screen and some buttons on top.

And yet there are plenty tablets out there that look very different from an iPad and that nobody would easily confuse with an iPad. And it's not as if Samsung wasn't capable of designing a nice looking tablet if they wanted to. They could try to be innovative and design a tablet that looks _better_ than an iPad 2. I'm sure it can be done. If you don't believe me, just wait until the iPad 3 is released.

i find the a bit ridiculous , whats Sumsung supposed to do , building a round tablet?or a oval shaped one? or maybe something totally odd shaped , and what materials ..should they use gold or maybe platin , sure it will be aluminium or silver /black painted plastic would be a otion , but then again it will look like a iPad

Look up the article on theregister where they review ten different tablets. Eight of them look very different to the iPad.

 

[hayesk]

I don't buy Apple products because of their association with foxconn

Pretty much every PC has at least one foxconn component inside it. And if you manage to find one that doesn't, it has parts made by an equally "evil" company such as flextronics.

So, if you are against foxconn, then you must be against companies with the same practices as foxconn. You should pretty much give up computing devices altogether.

 

[Trudy]

Bingo! Guess Boeing, Airbus, Bombardier, Embraer will have to pay $$$$ to the Wright family because they infringe on the the Wright brothers' first fixed-wing aircraft design.

You know that's ridiculous. However, modern aircraft makers do have design patents for their specific airplane designs.

There are only so may ways to design a tablet with a landscape orientation. Tablets are pretty much slabs with a screen on top. Regardless of design choice, you would end up a rectangular slab with a screen and some buttons on top.

Notice how tablets looked before the iPad, and then after. That should tell you all you need to know. I doubt Apple would complain if the Galaxy Tab looked like their tablets did before the iPad.

 

[hayesk]

In spite of that, everything expressed in that photo (flush-surface screen with wide black margin and rounded corners) can be considered prior art.

Then I'm sure Samsung will present that evidence to the court and the judge will rule. Does anyone think Samsung's lawyers haven't thought of that? Surely Samsung's lawyers questioned their design team, who knows they released a picture frame five years ago.

Is there really anything more to add to this conversation?

 

[KnightWRX]

Then I'm sure Samsung will present that evidence to the court and the judge will rule. Does anyone think Samsung's lawyers haven't thought of that? Surely Samsung's lawyers questioned their design team, who knows they released a picture frame five years ago.

Is there really anything more to add to this conversation?

In Dutch court, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was ruled non-infringing against the '607 Registration based on the HP/Compaq TC1100. This is the exact same claim that the judge just ruled on today in Germany (the '607 infringement by the Tab 10.1).

Seems it's more a matter of opinion at this point as 2 different courts have given 2 different verdicts on the same claims against the same products.

 

[The Beatles]

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Patent trolling my foot. These products are blatant rip-offs of great design by Apple. On the one hand it's quite a compliment to have ALL of your products replicated. On the other hand it's infringement, plain and simple. The exactness to which Samsung copied Apple on this, not only in their hardware, but in examples I've seen of their software as well, made me sick to my stomach when I watched some of their keynotes. Heck, even the presentations are similar!

Image

STAGE looks like Apple.
PRODUCT looks like Apple.
PEOPLE look and sound like Apple.

Samsung should be ashamed of their lack of effort and originality.

Well maybe Apple can pay off the patent office once again and be granted a patent on hand gestures during keynote speeches. I personally wouldn't put something this rediculious past them. We can call them iGestures and everytime an executive folds their hands on stage they have to pay Apple $10,000.

Wohw, wait a minute. You have evidence that apple paid off the patent office? Grow up.

 

[BC2009]

Wow. I am bit surprised that Apple's design held up to the point that the Galaxy Tab was ruled to be infringing. I thought it was really dumb of Samsung to not go after invalidating the community design _before_ their product release given Apple's decades long history of protecting their IP -- especially design-related IP.

I wonder if the case to invalidate the community design is separate from this. I wonder if the courts had to rule in this way simply because the community design registration has not been invalidated.

Basically, it comes down to the fact that the JooJoo tablet was shown months before the iPad and looked very much like the iPad. Additionally, both the JooJoo and iPad pretty much copy their design from the iPhone. So iPhone design is patented (design registration in EU), but that IP protection probably does not extend to tablets.

It seemed to me that the IP protection around the iPad design would not stand on its own unless the product looked near-identical given the prior art with JooJoo. So the only other possibility I saw was Apple leveraging the IP protection around the iPhone which pre-dated JooJoo.

Anyway, I stand by one thing. Apple does a great job of protecting their distinct look and feel and competitors should look to differentiate and innovate or look to get Apple's IP design-related IP protection invalidated before going up against them with similar designs.

Personally, I think the design patent in the US for iPad is pretty vague in that it claims a design as pictured and described in the document. So it is left to a judge to look at two products and decide if they look too much alike. In the case of the Galaxy Tab, the back looks very different than the iPad, and the Samsung logo in the front seems to differentiate enough for me. The alternative is to basically concede that Apple has the rounded rectangle, flat face design pretty much locked up.

I see what Apple is doing in trying to prevent anybody from getting a foothold before they even represent real competition, but you have to admit that Android tablets today look like a non-threat to the iPad.

 

[ChazUK]

Notice how tablets looked before the iPad, and then after. That should tell you all you need to know. I doubt Apple would complain if the Galaxy Tab looked like their tablets did before the iPad.

Image

I'm surprised we haven't seen "before iPad, after iPad" jpeg yet tbh.
There's a new one floating around now:
https://plus.google.com/110351160992477343545/posts/KLn3Pdtv4J8

 

[dethmaShine]

The photoframe is from 2006, the Apple Community Design registration is from 2004. Samsung won against that claim in Dutch court thanks to the HP/Compaq TC1100 providing prior art.

Do you really think the judge never took Compaq TC1100 into consideration?
The judge could have overruled Apple's claim disregarding on the basis of prior art by itself. The judge wouldn't have waited for Samsung's reply on the same.

 

[BC2009]

Wohw, wait a minute. You have evidence that apple paid off the patent office? Grow up.

You do have to pay the patent office certain fees to get the patent issued. Maybe that is what they meant.

 

[Trudy]

I don't buy Apple products because of their association with foxconn

So you don't buy products from Acer, Vizio, Microsoft, Nokia, Nintendo, Dell, Cisco, MSI, Hewlett-Packard or Sony Ericsson?

Foxconn also has a large investment in and cooperation with Chimei Innolux, Taiwan's largest LCD display maker. Their screens go into phones, monitors, TVs, tablets, GPS, etc., from many major manufacturers.

 

[whooleytoo]

The photoframe is from 2006, the Apple Community Design registration is from 2004. Samsung won against that claim in Dutch court thanks to the HP/Compaq TC1100 providing prior art.

Ah, thanks!

Is this the iPad Community Design? So the design was registered 6 years before the release of the device?

 

[Ries]

You know that's ridiculous. However, modern aircraft makers do have design patents for their specific airplane designs.



Notice how tablets looked before the iPad, and then after. That should tell you all you need to know. I doubt Apple would complain if the Galaxy Tab looked like their tablets did before the iPad.

Image

Notice samsung anno 2006 design
http://www.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/samsung-ipad-photo-frame.jpg

 

[KnightWRX]

I'm surprised we haven't seen "before iPad, after iPad" jpeg yet tbh.
There's a new one floating around now:

That new one is a roar. I get a kicked every time someone posts the "RDF" version, how can people really expect us to believe that when it's been proven false again and again ?

Some people on here really don't know anything about the actual products on the market outside of the Apple sphere.

 

[dethmaShine]

Ah, thanks!

Is this the iPad Community Design? So the design was registered 6 years before the release of the device?

Exactly.

 

[KnightWRX]

Ah, thanks!

Is this the iPad Community Design? So the design was registered 6 years before the release of the device?

It's not exactly the iPad. It's just a generic slab with a full glass front :

http://es.scribd.com/doc/61944044/Community-Design-000181607-0001

 

[Rodimus Prime]

That new one is a roar. I get a kicked every time someone posts the "RDF" version, how can people really expect us to believe that when it's been proven false again and again ?

Some people on here really don't know anything about the actual products on the market outside of the Apple sphere.

yep. I am willing to bet with in the next year people will be claiming that Android is Coping Apple's notifications system.
2 years it will be BBM is coping iMessage.

And next 6 months claiming WP7 is coping Apple notifications.
Instead of the other way around for all.

 

[SandynJosh]

Why did this article about Samsung show a photo of an iPad???

 

[vrDrew]

Some people on here really don't know anything about the actual products on the market outside of the Apple sphere.

It's pretty obvious to me that German judges are woefully ignorant of all the norms of European law; at least in comparison to anonymous commenters on the internet.

Quote of the Year, from Ars Technica

 

[The Beatles]

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Freaky, so why are you even on this site? Again, I say this every time. Why on earth does someone who dislikes a company down so much time on a site dedicated to that company.

I don't think I'd ever visit an android site and post about how much I don't care for their products. What a waste of my time.

Why do you live in USA if you are pro-republican? (I don't know where do you live, but that's the case: this is a democratic forum)

Are you kidding me, hardly my point.

 

[KnightWRX]

Quote of the Year, from Ars Technica

I don't get the point of your post. I was commenting on Chaz's picture, not the Germany ruling.

Are you kidding me, hardly my point.

You don't have a point. I own Apple products, I like them and how they work (especially my MBA) and I'm interested in Apple product rumors. That doesn't mean I have to agree with everything Apple does or that I even have to like every single product they put out.

And even though I'm not 100% behind Apple, I still have as much right as you to be here.

So can we please drop the "What are you doing on this site if you disagree with Apple on this issue" propaganda ? It just serves to polarize the discussion into an endless "With us or Against us" debate that leads nowhere and is counter productive to an objective discussion about the issues.

 

[brdeveloper]

Ah, thanks!

Is this the iPad Community Design? So the design was registered 6 years before the release of the device?

Sounds really uncompetitive since registering these designs costs a lot for startup entrepreneurs. These model of IP protection is restricting the market to a few big companies and thus we have no new players. Can we expect arising a new Apple, Microsoft or Google in the future?

 

[cliveren13]

apple

THis is why i sold my IPAD and bought a Galaxy Tab apple wil seem to alot of people as a cry baby and people will stop buying thier products samsung needs to pull all manufaturing that they do for apple let them go somewhere else. APPLE is nothing more than a sore loser

 

[whooleytoo]

It's not exactly the iPad. It's just a generic slab with a full glass front :

http://es.scribd.com/doc/61944044/Community-Design-000181607-0001

Thanks for that.

So is the injunction is based on that community design? A quick sketch (no actual device, at the time) of a generic, minimalistic design: a rectangular screen with rounded bezel? Or is the injunction based on more than the physical form factor & community design?

If that's it, everyone who has ever designed an iPhone 5/6/7 or iPad 3/4/5 mockup should register their community designs, and really mess Apple up! Karma!

 

[SockRolid]

To paraphrase Steve

If you see a "Samsung," they blew it.