UK High Court: Samsung tablets 'not as cool' as iPad, so they don't infringe

[Top100EbooksRank]

Samsung won a victory over Apple in the UK high court as part of its world-spanning battle over intellectual property and design after a judge ruled the design of its Galaxy Tab isn't cool enough to be confused with an iPad.

The ruling, by Judge Colin Birss, means that Apple cannot stop the import or sale of the Galaxy Tab 10 under claims it has made that the designs are too close to those of the iPad.

Instead, Judge Birss ruled that Samsung's designs did not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design: "They are not as cool."

He noted distinctions such as the thickness and details on the backs of the devices in his ruling. "The informed user's overall impression of each of the Samsung Galaxy Tablets is the following," he said in his ruling. "From the front they belong to the family which includes the Apple design; but the Samsung products are very thin, almost insubstantial members of that family with unusual details on the back. They do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design. They are not as cool. The overall impression produced is different."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busine...MYW_story.html

The judge in the case, the report said, justified his assertion by pointing to the thickness of the tablets and the way they look and feel in the back. The Samsung tablets he said, “do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design,” Bloomberg reported.

Even with that ding, Samsung was happy with the ruling, saying that it proves Apple doesn’t have the sole right to “generic” product design.

“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,” the Korean company told Bloomberg in an e-mail. Apple has said in the past that Samsung’s designs “blatantly” copy its own and that it simply wants other companies to make their own, original products.

I wonder why laptop companies didn't sue each others over the generic design of laptop.

Or Television for that matter. A lot of LCD/LED television have basically the same shape and what not.

[Sil_liS]

A victory for common sense.

[Top100EbooksRank]

I wonder which TV manufacturer has the patent for rectangular tv with a black bezel design.

[Dulin's Books]

the ruling also said that Apples design lacked originality, calling into question the whole patent

[teh603]

So just like the last Samsung victory, when does it get reciprocity over here? Last thing I saw on the US side, Apple had all but forced a recall of Samsung's products.

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

A victory for common sense.

The one sure thing about this is that it is not over.


The lawyers will rise again like the walking dead.

They won't stay dead!

Over and over.

[Ankh]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

A victory for common sense.

I am not so sure.

The judge just gave Apple de iure patent on "coolness" didn't he?

[cjr72]

I think it's brilliant on the part of the judge. How could Apple object? "Your Honor, the Samsung tablet is every bit as cool as the iPad!"

[plib]

Originally Posted by Ankh

I am not so sure.

The judge just gave Apple de iure patent on "coolness" didn't he?

I'm not sure anyone is ready for a world in which a judge is the arbiter of "cool". If anything it would probably work against Apple.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by Ankh

I am not so sure.

The judge just gave Apple de iure patent on "coolness" didn't he?

I thought that it's already been established that consumers go to Apple for cool and to Android for the extra options.

[RainingLemur]

"Over-ruled, Judge? Or....

Over-COOLed?"

*Gavel slams down*

[SeaKing]

I am happy about the ruling, but I can't agree with the reasoning.

Perhaps one Judge's "cool" is another man's quagmire.

[QuantumIguana]

Coolness doesn't seem to be a valid criteria, but I don't think that Apple owns the idea of a rectangle with rounded corners.