Germany Halts Distribution Of Galaxy Tab 10.1 In Europe (Except Netherlands) In Apple

[5thWiggle]

Originally Posted by aceflor

It's in german, sorry for that, but to clarify what it says is that the court did agree to halt the distribution momentarily to study the case and that it is not a patent breach case but a design copying case.

Sorry aceflor, but esthetic designs are patentable and, in a number of cases, rigorously defended. Most notable cases I know of are in the field of electric guitars. Fender, Gibson et al routinely go after clones of their more successful models. Most rulings are in their favour even though the name on the headstock is different. The criteria for design patents seems to be that a consumer can tell "at a reasonable glance" that the object was indeed produced by the patent holder, and not a competitor.

Link to one of Apple's design patents

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by 5thWiggle

Sorry aceflor, but esthetic designs are patentable and, in a number of cases, rigorously defended. [/URL]

Did I say anything else ? No. I was talking about THIS particular case here, and this is what is written in the article
[QUOTE]....Dabei geht es um Geschmacksmuster, also das Design und die äußerliche Gestaltung des Tablet Computers, nicht um Ansprüche aus Apple-Patenten.....[QUOTE/]

[5thWiggle]

Sorry, a little confused over who said what there.

In Canada and US, if company A gets a design patent and company B infringes and gets sued, it is still considered a patent infringement. I see Germany has something called a Geschmacksmuster which is pretty much the same thing, but they seem to consider it separate from patent.

I need more coffee......

[RockdaMan]

Look, there were other tablets on the market when the iPad was released: from HP, the Kindle, etc.

But none of them looked like the iPad, and the iPad did not copy their look. But as soon as the iPad starts selling like hotcakes, others want to copy it's essential design.

If it were my design, I'd fight too.

If Amazon releases a Kindle that looks like the new BN Touch Reader, BN should take action.

If Apple releases an iPhone that looks like the Droid, Motorola should take action.

[Thierry.C]

Originally Posted by RockdaMan

If it were my design, I'd fight too.

What design?
A 10 inch screen inside a rectangular frame with smooth rounded edges?

Let's be frank, that is not what I would call a patentable design (in terms of style/fashion). Otherwise, anyone could patent a cube of any size, or any shape with nothing at all special, whose anyone could argue for intellectual property...

However, I agree that what is mostly questionable with such a silly case is the acceptance of such a patent in the first place.

Probably Samsung should just play "brute-force" here; the market will choose (even if it involves to pay a fine). As I understood, it is what's happening in Australia.

Note: what I would call fairly patentable designs from Apple is, e.g., the stylised Apple, which is the way the brand is known. And maybe some of the particularities of the unibody case, even if that is questionable (some manufacturing innovation regarding this would be more understandable).

[aceflor]

According to FT, Apple has a similar complaint against Motorola Xoom pending in Düsseldorf. And consumers in Europe are not amused.

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by Thierry.C

What design?

If they think they have been infringed, they should sue. If the judges agree they should find for Apple. If they don't agree, they should find for the others.

It really is as simple as that.

Apple doesn’t appear to be patenting the iPad itself, but instead is, in a loose sense, patenting an entire class or market of devices. Apple couldn’t effectively do this with the MP3 market and the iPod because it wasn’t the first entrant to that market. Apple improved upon the the existing field of digital audio players with a solid user experience tied it to an effective ecosystem. Contrast that to the iPad, which essentially created a viable consumer tablet market. No, the iPad wasn’t the first tablet by a long shot, but it was the first to attract worldwide sales in significant numbers. The iPad contributed $6 billion in revenues for Apple in the last quarter; higher than the $5 billion earned by Mac computers.

[aceflor]

For the time being it is nothing more than an injunction. Hopefully "patenting an entire class or market of devices" will not be successful, the mere idea of this happening is just ludicrous and certainly not in accordance with consumers protection as wanted by the European Comission in Brussels.

What she says : http://thestir.cafemom.com/technolog...r_tantrum_over

[vaughnmr]

Here's another opinion on what Apple is trying to do:

http://www.bnet.com/blog/technology-...tionContent.10

[RockdaMan]

Again, Apple is leaving it in the hands of the judges.

They are best equipped to decide. What is the problem with pursuing legal redress if you have been wronged? If they have not, they will pay damages to Samsung and all will be made well again.

[JSWolf]

Motorola should sue Apple for adding cameras to the iPad2.

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Motorola should sue Apple for adding cameras to the iPad2.

...and Amazon Sony for adding 3G to its device.

[anamardoll]

I am not okay with these patent wars, and yes I do blame Apple over the judges. There will always be stupid judges, and Apple shouldn't exploit that to stifle competition.

The "form factor" patent is ridiculous. Every laptop I have ever owned had precisely the same form factor -- thank god Dell didn't decide to patent the laptop form and then push every other company out of business. Every TV on earth looks essentially the same at this point. So does every smart phone. Within a few years, most eReaders will look similar too, I suspect.

The Apple iPad line drawings that this ruling was based on would apply almost as much to the Nook Touch at to the Galaxy Tab -- they're literally just "rectangular touch screen device". This is ridiculous.

I'm utterly infuriated at how much court money is being wasted on these patent wars. You want to balance a country's budget? Fine Apple for these stupid suits and then collect the taxes on the Galaxy Tab sales. That's money.

[Dulin's Books]

Its not a Patent Its an EU Community Design which is akin to a Trademark. This is the one in question

http://www.scribd.com/doc/61944044/C...000181607-0001

Its Ridiculous. Also The Judge did not rule on the merits, simply granted the injunction as is common practice in this court in these types of cases.

Originally Posted by RockdaMan

Apple?
...not the two judges that ruled the same in two different and far away lands?

There was no ruling in Australia. It was reported wrong. There are two versions of the Tab 10" device. The 10.1 and the earlier 10.1v . Apple filed for the injunction ( or filed an intent to file for the injunction) against one and Samsung said they weren't launching that one any way they were using the other. So Samsung "stopping the launch" got reported as Apple stopped Samsung from launching.

[anamardoll]

Though it IS just a pre-lim injunction, it will stop sales in the meantime, which will hurt Samsung. I very much doubt that Apple will be forced to pay comparable damages if the suit is later overturned.