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Swiss Federal Railways Says Apple Copied Its Iconic Railway Clock

TableSyrup said:
Whatever. It 'resembles' it.

Proportionately, it is different. Unless there is evidence of blatant attempt to copy, I call coincidence, and no infringement.

This is like trying to copyright note progression. no.

Eventually, we will all be stuck with the same songs, images, gadgets, computers, cars, clothes, etc... since we will run out of original designs, and god forbid something new is similar to something else.

Park progress.
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What, one hangs outside a train station and the other is on an iPad..... That's your legal defence? Proportionally different!?!
 
zephonic said:
Seriously, every railway station in Europe has that same damn clock on every platform. Are you gonna tell me they all pay the SBB for use of this design???
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Seriously - perhaps they all do. And even if they don't - that doesn't make it right. If everyone is speeding along the highway but ONE person gets caught by the police - they can't use the excuse "but everyone was speeding."

But that aside - why is it so hard to believe?

TableSyrup said:
Whatever. It 'resembles' it.

Proportionately, it is different. Unless there is evidence of blatant attempt to copy, I call coincidence, and no infringement.

This is like trying to copyright note progression. no.

Eventually, we will all be stuck with the same songs, images, gadgets, computers, cars, clothes, etc... since we will run out of original designs, and god forbid something new is similar to something else.

Park progress.
Click to expand...

Are you KIDDING me? Coincidence? Resemblance? Are we looking at the same image. Did you believe Samsung COPIED or made something that "resembles" some of the icons on their devices? Because Samsung's icons "resembled" but did not copy almost visually "verbatim" Apples. And yet...
 
coolfactor said:
When watching Apple's version, the second hand moves smoothly, without "ticking" like most clocks. Does this Swiss Railway clock operate the same way, with a smooth-moving second hand? That would be further evidence of an intentional copy. Bad Apple!
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No, growing up in Switzerland and being quite familiar with the Swiss Railways clocks, the Railway clock minutes handle does not continually move as the Apple clock does, it waits until the seconds handle finishes a full minute and then the minutes handle jumps to the next minute.
 
shanmugam said:
the thing is Apple has ton of money and Europe railways do not ...

so they are targeting who has money :p
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well, like Proview in China

but finally Proview earned 200 million from Apple if i recall well

it doesn't matter who is the richest, at the end, the one who committed the fault has to pay
 
Funny, What comes around, goes around. Be sue happy and people are happy to sue you. Don't see how this is much different then copying the design of the iPhone. Damages may be smaller though. LOL
 
KrakaJap said:
It's funny to see that "minor" differences are enough deny a copy when Apple is being attacked but minor differences when Apple is doing the attacking are more than enough to go to war over. :/
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Glad i am not the only one who sees this. Homers are the worst.

I hope Apple has to pay a big check, this litigation is getting out of hand and the only way for everyone to play nice is if everyone gets bit.
 
I see them as very similar, but there are several differences

The second hand on the Apple clock is tapered, the Railroad clock is not

The proportions of the minute/5 minute marks are very different

No logo on the Apple clock

I think Apple is being railroaded here.
 
not exact copy...

looks like the second/minute marks are of different thinkness, and the hands are slightly different in lenght.

Wouldn't that hold up in court?
 
avflinsch said:
I see them as very similar, but there are several differences

The second hand on the Apple clock is tapered, the Railroad clock is not

The proportions of the minute/5 minute marks are very different

No logo on the Apple clock

I think Apple is being railroaded here.
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Translate your observations to what Samsung was defending against in relation to the phone and Ill think you will find that the Swiss legal society will be perfectly entitled to rather large sums of money due to patent infringement.
 
Stealing from the Swiss is a habit: we pay up to 50% more for Apple's products and services than the US consumer...
 
bacaramac said:
I'm sure Apple will happily pay the $10 in damages. How could this possibly "hurt" them? I see that it is licensed, but I can't imagine this appearing on the iPad would impact them outside of them wanting the lic fees.

I do however believe this is an identical copy. I wonder how Apple gets their images. If an employee creates these, someone is gonna be fired for not doing their job and actually creating the icon and instead they copied.
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You could ask how Samsung using the same green gradient on a call icon could 'hurt' Apple ;)

(I know, I know - it'll start an argument :p)
 
And...

nickspohn said:
All these people saying the clocks aren't the same are in extreme Apple denial. The red second hand has the rounded end just like the swiss clock.
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And a Honda has a grille just like a Ford... I am not saying that Apple is not infringing upon licensed design, but a white faced round clock with black hash marks for hours and minutes with two black hands one for hours and one for minutes and a red one for seconds is in fact VERY common. Adding a red ball on the end doesnt mean anything..

Sans the red ball and fatter second hand is this infringing any less? http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&...w=140&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:70
 
KdParker said:
looks like the second/minute marks are of different thinkness, and the hands are slightly different in lenght.

Wouldn't that hold up in court?
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Uh, the galaxy S II or S ii is nothing like the iPhone but you know, its different when you are in the defendants seat.
 
PinkyMacGodess said:
GADS, that actually happened?
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Probably staged, just like the ones of the kids from the crowd who come up and do front flips. They just plant someone in the audience and call them up when it's time. Keeps the crowd amused during the halftime show.

EDIT: Yep, looks like an expert foot plant on the trampoline. It's entirely possible he could have made it if he'd intended to. Even if not, he knew what he was doing.

jW
 
The Swiss just published pictures of Kate Middleton topless, and in an unnecessary act of retaliation, Apple stole and published the Swiss' iconic clock....I think this is just some very odd kind of move against the Swiss who are hoarding iconic items like the clock, the swiss army knife, and banking...
 
I think Apple should definitely pay for the license, provided they aren't asking some ridiculous amount. It definitely looks like the iPad clock used this as reference/inspiration. But then again, does the look of that clock fall under the Creative Commons license? I actually really liked the look of the clock on my iPad. But if the Swiss Railway are going to ask for an exorbitant amount of money, then I wouldn't pay them a dime. It's not like they are eating into their sales by using that design.
 
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