Galaxy Tab Banned in Europe

[kjk]

Apple wins permanent ban on German sales of Samsung tablet

Samsung must not sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany because it looks too much like Apple's iPad 2, the district court in Dusseldorf ruled on Friday.

In addition, Samsung Germany may not sell the device in any other European Union country, although other Samsung divisions may sell into those countries, a spokesman at the court said.

Samsung will appeal the decision in the Dusseldorf Higher Regional Court, a spokesman said.

[anamardoll]

That's very disappointing.

[RainingLemur]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

That's very disappointing.

Understatement of the year.

[anamardoll]

I try.

[Andrew H.]

[QUOTE=anamardoll;1735329]Wait, that doesn't make any sense. You say you can't get a search warrant to search for an item that isn't connected with a crime -- would not the theft of the iPhone be a crime? (If I understand the story, this isn't just an iPhone, it's a prototype for their next line and therefore extremely valuable to the corporation.) And if Apple didn't file it as a crime, why would the police show up? And if they DID have a GPS trace, why didn't they show up with a warrant instead of showing up and questioning him about his immigration status?

[quote]

The iPhone was lost, but it may not have been stolen. It may have just been left behind, and then picked up by someone who planned to return it the next day. Or maybe Apple didn't want to file theft charges if they could get the phone back more easily.

If there actually was a unique GPS trace, this should have been a simple warrant and search situation. A warrant and search would have been better -- they wouldn't have needed permission, and they could have done a more thorough search. (Considering that they searched the house with permission and didn't find anything, this would be pertinent.)

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news...weekly-updated

According to this article:

1. The police accompanied the Apple employees to the man's house, and questioned him, but stayed outside while the Apple employees searched the man's house. The police officers were not involved in the search -- which I actually consider to be highly suspicious.

2. The police didn't file a report, due to Apple's request that a report not be filed.

IANAL, and gods know if this is legal. But it stinks to me. I would NOT be okay with police officers showing civilians to my door and hassling me about my immigration status until I agree to let them in my house and search my belongings.

And I don't see anything about GPS in the SF Weekly article I could find:

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/...ple_police.php

Where's your link? Looks like this may not be the only one they wrote. However, if the only mention of GPS is from the Apple detective trying to talk his way into the house, there's no reason to believe that's not a lie. Detectives do that from time to time.

Here's the link: http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/...ne_5_apple.php The quote is the first sentence.

And while the Apple detective could have lied about the GPS to police, and to the guy, that would be more plausible if there were something else connecting this guy to the iPhone. I.e., they didn't ask to search everyone's house at random; they asked to search this one particular guy's house.

The more I think about it, the more I'm thinking that Apple didn't want theft charges filed. They, presumably, didn't anticipate any publicity - they probably thought that their detective and and police would show up at the guy's house, he'd turn over the phone, and no one would hear anything about a missing iPhone prototype. Which was, of course, completely not what happened.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by kjk

Apple wins permanent ban on German sales of Samsung tablet

Oh, joy:

Meanwhile, Samsung has vowed to keep up its legal counter-offensive. "We will take all available legal options including continuing to aggressively pursue Apple for its ongoing violation of Samsung's wireless technology patents around the world," the Samsung spokesman said.

[DMB]

I think that's very regrettable. As someone posted elsewhere, Apple is coming on worse that IBM or Microsoft.

[anamardoll]

The tech-news site CNET reported earlier this week that an unreleased iPhone 5 had been lost in the Mission district restaurant Cava 22. The incident echoed the earlier loss of the iPhone 4 prototype last year, which led to a scandal as Apple and law-enforcement sought to recover the phone from the gadget blog Gizmodo, which purchased it for $5,000 from men who found it.

Thank you for the link.

I have to wonder why Apple employees keep taking extremely valuable prototype phones to restaurants and "losing" them. In my industry experience, it's extremely rare to take a prototype in the field, and certainly not without some kind of GPS/tracking device attached to it (with which they could get a proper warrant to recover it and not, say, impersonate police officers and search peoples' homes), and this is the second time this has happened?

Truth is stranger than fiction, but when this same thing happens to the iPhone 6, I'm going to call publicity stunt.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by kjk

Apple wins permanent ban on German sales of Samsung tablet

This is bad. VERY bad.
From now on, every tablet with rectangular screen in rectangular case is in danger.
I am more and more disappointed with the direction all this rotten patent system, and Intellectual Property shakedown is heading.

I find it also very strange that Slashdot didn't report this yet. Perhaps they decided not to give Apple ANY publicity.
EDIT: Slashdot has just published an article

[anamardoll]

Well, apparently the tablets are only in danger in Germany and if they are produced in Germany. The other Samsung distributors can continue to sell in the EU.

But, yeah, this is... well, I disagree with the decision. As will, I suspect many members of the EU. I suppose this is a known problem with letting one country's rather strict patent laws be applied to every other nearby country.

I look forward to the same German court announcing that only Samsung can make computer screens and only Dell can make folding laptops. Can't have those designs being copied, now can we?

[Sweetpea]

The Dutch judge judged the design patent too basic. Every tablet should have a large screen and rounded corners. It's simply the only really working design for a tablet. And there were already tablets before 2004 (when apple put its design down) that had the same design...

Let's hope more judges see it that way and this will die right here and now...

[afv011]

Originally Posted by kacir

This is bad. VERY bad.
From now on, every tablet with rectangular screen in rectangular case is in danger.

Agreed; what happened to "prior art"?

[kacir]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I look forward to the same German court announcing that only Samsung can make computer screens and only Dell can make folding laptops. Can't have those designs being copied, now can we?

I wonder who would snatch that lucrative market for QWERTY keyboards.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by kacir

I wonder who would snatch that lucrative market for QWERTY keyboards.

MINE!!

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Thank you for the link.

I have to wonder why Apple employees keep taking extremely valuable prototype phones to restaurants and "losing" them. In my industry experience, it's extremely rare to take a prototype in the field, and certainly not without some kind of GPS/tracking device attached to it (with which they could get a proper warrant to recover it and not, say, impersonate police officers and search peoples' homes), and this is the second time this has happened?

Truth is stranger than fiction, but when this same thing happens to the iPhone 6, I'm going to call publicity stunt.

When this happened last year I believed the 'employee lost it' story.

2 years in a row and I call 'publicity stunt'.

Carol