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German Injunction Against Sale of Galaxy Tab 10.1 Upheld

vrDrew said:
For all practical purposes it means Apple has won. It will keep the Galaxy out of Europe's biggest single market for at least a year -
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I read that it only banned Samsung itself from selling retail or wholesale in Germany.

It does not stop German retailers from selling Tabs they bought wholesale from suppliers outside of Germany.

I'd bet that some nice arrangements for that are being made even as we speak.
 
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whoever approved this patent in the first place deservs to be shot
 
brdeveloper said:
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?
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Indeed. Protecting your work is hugely expensive for startups, particularly if you wish to do so world-wide. I'd imagine many small companies don't have the resources to even do thorough patent/design searches to check for prior art in every jurisdiction, never mind patent their own work.
 
whooleytoo said:
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?
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Nope, the claims were for the '607 registration which is what I showed you. 2 pages, barely any details and very generic and minimalistic. Heck, you'd be hard pressed to say the iPad infringes on that having more details thanks to the home button.

The Dutch court last week ruled that the Tab 10.1 does not infringe the '607 registration, this same one.

So now we have 2 conflicting rulings meaning it's pretty much down to a matter of opinion at this point if there really is infringement. I think though that the Dutch ruling was more based on "Is this registration even valid to begin with ?" and the German ruling was more "This registration was granted, hence it's valid". Without being in the head of the judges presiding, it's only a matter of my opinion though.

bushido said:
whoever approved this patent in the first place deservs to be shot
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This will give you insight on how much (or little actually) review process there is for these :

http://www.osnews.com/story/25056/The_Community_Design_and_you_Thought_the_USPTO_Was_Bad
 
BaldiMac said:
...And Samsung doesn't like its case too much in Australia considering that they have voluntarily delayed launching the Tab there.
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The current state of the Australian injunction is apparently due to software capabilities covered by one particular Australian patent, rather than the shape and appearance of the device's casing. I guess we'll know more for sure after we've had a chance to read the judge's full opinion sometime in the week of September 26, though...
 
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mabaker said:
Why would Apple allow the copycats outrace them like they did in the 80's?

IT's about royalties. If they'Re ready to pay then let them sell but Samsung does not want to comply. It blatantly rips off Apple's success just like Google did with Android in 2007.
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In other words, SUCK IT Samsung! It is absolutely clear that the Galaxy's industrial design (along with others) was totally based on the iPad - and this is not even including patents, of course.

The unpunished copycat era is over.
 
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Yeah, guys. Keep posting photos of tablet-like designs, photo frames and other objects, as if it makes a difference. There's about 50 of em in the other thread, and probably another 30 in the related thread before that.

Friggin priceless.
 
kdarling said:
It does not stop German retailers from selling Tabs they bought wholesale from suppliers outside of Germany.
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They would risk contempt of court fines if they advertised or promoted the product. And if Samsung Tabs were selling like hotcakes (hot pretzels?) in Germany, maybe they'd risk it. But they aren't.

Apple's IP fight with Samsung isn't going to be decided with a single "knockout blow" that settles the issue once and for ever. But in an industry where product life cycles are measured in months, an injunction like this is a killer.

Its also worth noting that Samsung isn't stupid. They know the IP litigation they, and other handset and tablet makers, are facing from a host of companies OTHER THAN Apple: Oracle, Microsoft, Nokia. And my guess is that at some point they are going to cut their losses on the illusion of "free" Android tablet software - and throw in their lot with Microsoft. There are rumors floating around that a Samsung Tablet running a version of Windows 8 will be revealed next week at MS Build Developer's Conference.

What does Samsung risk by abandoning Android for its Tablet offerings? Answer: Not much. Google is becoming more of a liability with every passing day. They haven't built a decent App market. Consumers seem underwhelmed. Hitching onto Microsoft would make their (software) IP problems go away, plus they'd find a massive overnight audience for people who still want to run their Microsoft Office and other Windows legacy apps on a Tablet. All that Samsung would need to do is focus their design efforts on making something sufficiently distinctive to the iPad to a) not infringe and b) stake out their own image in the market.
 
MacHamster68 said:
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
a tablet is today nothing else then a display with some processing unit behind , widescreen is used today nobody will go back to 4:3 displays so that means the tablet gets a rectangular shape and will automaitcally look like a ipad if you squint a bit

i guess Apple lost the plot like that judge , competition was always good for the consumer's pocket

what if mercedes would do the same ...the first 3 and 4 wheeled cars with a petrol powered 4 stoke engine had been build by Karl Benz ....should Mercedes now go to courts around the world to enforce a ban on all other car manufacturers for selling 4 wheeled cars with 4 stroke engines and force the other manufacturers to build 5 wheeled vehicles or so..... as they infringe the initial design of Karl Benz
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Exactly, if the automotive industry used the Apple model, there would be only one company, shows the flaws in these extremely generic patents that were granted. It's like someone had an idea at a bar, drew it a napkin, then patterned it. Has anyone actually look at Apples design patent, it so vague, anytime square tablet could infringe on it.
 
jiggie2g said:
Apple went from being the cute fruity underdog to a completely fascist corporation that competes by patent trolling and using local law enforcement to do its muscle work. Congrats Apple you did the impossible by out douch bagging Microsoft.
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Couldn't agree more.
 
bushido said:
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whoever approved this patent in the first place deservs to be shot
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It's actually not a patent, it is a European Community Design which protects industrial design.

http://oami.europa.eu/ows/rw/pages/RCD/communityDesign.en.do

The registered Community design (RCD)
An RCD is an exclusive right for the outward appearance of a product or part of it, resulting from the features (in particular, the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture and/or materials) of the product itself and/or its ornamentation.
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Apple did invent minimalstic. Go back to 2007 with the existing market and th introduction of the iPhone , and then again to 2010 with the ipad...

How did samsung 'smart' phone looked in 2007? Yup, like a berry phone. How did samsung pad looked like in 2010? Yup, like nothing because that is what they had...
 
jiggie2g said:
Apple went from being the cute fruity underdog to a completely fascist corporation that competes by patent trolling and using local law enforcement to do its muscle work. Congrats Apple you did the impossible by out douch bagging Microsoft.
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You couldn't be more wrong.

Apple didn't defend its technology the first go around in the OS wars.
Steve Jobs and company learned their lesson.
THey won't make the same mistake with iOS and the mobile wars.

Apple should do everything in its power to prevent competitors from leveraging the success of the iPad for their own gain. That is exactly what they are doing.
 
vrDrew said:
They would risk contempt of court fines if they advertised or promoted the product.
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I don't know if that's true, but the retailers themselves could promote it.

"The ruling by a Duesseldorf state court, however, only applies to direct sales from the Seoul, South Korea-based company, meaning distributors who acquire the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from abroad could resell them in Germany." - USAToday
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vrDrew said:
Its also worth noting that Samsung isn't stupid. They know the IP litigation they, and other handset and tablet makers, are facing from a host of companies OTHER THAN Apple: Oracle, Microsoft, Nokia.

And my guess is that at some point they are going to cut their losses on the illusion of "free" Android tablet software - and throw in their lot with Microsoft.
Click to expand...

Only people outside the industry think that Android is "free".

Samsung and the other manufacturers have large Android R&D labs dedicated to porting, refining and creating custom apps. One of them is not far from me.

Moreover, everyone has to pay license fees for all sorts of phone related items, from the radios to visual voice mail to whatever. The OS is just one part. So I don't see Samsung being forced to abandon Android for their phones, especially with as many as they're selling.

As for tablets, that decision is also more related to sales volume than fees. I do think that your reported rumors that Samsung will also make a Windows 8 tablet are probably right. They might make both.
 
i.mac said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

Apple did invent minimalstic. Go back to 2007 with the existing market and th introduction of the iPhone , and then again to 2010 with the ipad...

How did samsung 'smart' phone looked in 2007? Yup, like a berry phone. How did samsung pad looked like in 2010? Yup, like nothing because that is what they had...
Click to expand...

What about the LG Prada (2006), or the older 1992 IBM Simon?

Minimalistic has existed prior to the iPhone. Don't get me wrong, I love my iPhone, but I have to be open to the fact that it wasn't first, nor is it a new concept. It simply put lots of great things together, to make it a popular, and viable product.
 
Trudy said:
Now look at it from the side and back, and notice it looks nothing like an iPad overall.
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Again, this has nothing to do with the iPad but with registration '607, which itself looks nothing like an iPad.

Of course, the Dutch court found that the Tab 10.1 is non-infringing on the '607 registration.
 
Consultant said:
Samsung’s Digital Picture Frame was no iPad
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2011/08/23/samsungs-digital-picture-frame-was-no-ipad/
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So what? Apple isn't suing over the functionality of the device, they're suing over the design, hence, the purpose of the device is irrelevant. Only the design matters, and as you can clearly see, the iPad looks strikingly similar to that photo frame

Trudy said:
Have you seen that photo frame from other angles? It looks nothing like an iPad overall and couldn't be mistaken for one in any way. Samsung's actual tablets from the time look nothing like an iPad from any angle either.
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Have you looked at the Galaxy Tab from all angles? It could only be mistaken for an iPad to a blind person
 
What a sad decision and ruling. Well at least it's only Germany where it's banned, I also hope that the Galaxy Tab 7.7 is still going to launch there?
Really am disgusted with Apple for this, you cannot force your competition out a chosen market by bending laws and having products banned from sale.
It's also very arrogant for them to ignore the Australian court request to 'prove' the fact that the iPad sales will be impacted.

But I guess arrogance is the norm with Apple these day's, same goes for some of it's fans judging by the forums on here.

Down with Choice, Down with competitive market, Down with cheap prices, Down with competition.
Oh lord Steve we bless you................... :rolleyes:
 
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