This battle
has been raging on for over a year, here’s a brief recap to help you fill in
the blanks. This all began in April 2011, where Apple sued Samsung for
(according to Apple) “Instead of pursuing independent product development,
Samsung has chosen to slavishly copy Apple’s innovative technology, distinctive
user interfaces, and elegant and distinctive product and packaging design,
innovation of Apple’s valuable intellectual property rights”.
Samsung soon
after announced that it was counter suing Apple - taking the fight
international with lawsuits in Korea, Japan and Germany. Samsung soon launched
its frontal attack filling a complaint in the North District of California,
accusing Apple of 10 counts of patent infringement. Seven of the patents to do
with UMTS/W-CDMA 3G cellular communication, and the remaining three covered
various user interface elements.
On 9th of August 2011 a German
district court issued a preliminary injunction preventing Samsung from selling
the galaxy Tab 10.1 in every EU nation except the Netherlands. Two week after a
Dutch court ruled that Samsung Galaxy S, Galaxy Ace and Galaxy S II Smartphones
infringe on one of Apple’s patents. Samsung avoided the sales injunction in the
Netherlands by patching the scrolling and browsing behaviour of the infringing
Samsung photo app use in Android 2.3 build (gingerbread).
On the 13th of October, a
federal court justice in Australia granted Apples request for an injunction
barring local sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 until the two companies settle
their dispute via trial.
In late November 2011 an Australian federal
court overturned Apple’s patent related injunction of the Samsung Galaxy Tab
10.1 after a slight redesign, allowing the Samsung tablet to go back on sale in
that region on the 10th of December 2011. Soon after a US
district judge in California denied Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction
to stop sales of some Galaxy smartphones and tablets.
Early this year Germany’s Mannheim regional
court rejected Samsung’s complaint involving a patent related to the 3G/UMTS
wireless telecommunications standards, the court later went on to reject
another of Samsungs patents infringement claim against Apple. A Dutch appeals
court in The Hague upheld a lower court’s decision to not grant Apple’s request
t halt sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the 10.1v with a preliminary
injunction.
A Munich court denied apples recent request
for a preliminary injunction on Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab 10.1N and Galaxy Nexus
devices in Germany. On the 14th of March, 2012 the Hague District
Court rejected Samsungs attempt to ban Apple’s iPhones or iPads in the
Netherlands.
Two months
ago Apple asked a US judge for a ban on the Galaxy S III before its US launch
but the US District Judge delayed Apple’s plans to block the US launch of
Samsung’s Galaxy S III due to Scheduling conflicts. The Hague district court has ruled in Samsung’s favour regarding a 3G
patent asserted against Apple. Shortly after US district Judge Koh agreed
to tentatively stop sales of the company’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the US.
Another US court ruled granting the motion and imposing a ban on the Samsung
Galaxy Nexus. Almost immediately after learning of the federal judge Lucky
Koh’s granting Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction on the Galaxy Nexus
devices, Samsung filed a motion to stay the ban. Judge Koh then issued an order
denying Samsungs request leaving the injunction in place for the time being.
After which
Google and Samsung had a patch readied to address one of the search patent
issues. This patch was to be rolled out to the Galaxy Nexus devices in the US
regardless of carrier, which limit results from the quick search bar on the
android homescreen to just those from
the web.
On the 4th of July, 2012 the
High Court of Justice’s Chancery Division in the UK ruled that the Samsung’s
Galaxy Tab does not infringe upon the design of Apple’s iPad because Samsungs
tablet isn’t well-designed enough to be confused with Apple’s product. Later
that month a ruling from the Dusseldorf Higher Regional Court in Germany clears
the Galaxy Tab 10.1N for sale but extends a German ban on the Galaxy Tab 7.7 to
the entire EU.
The trial
began on the 30th of July, in Apple’s opening statement Apple painted
Samsung as an aesthetic thief that took inspiration from Apple rather than
innovate on its own, claiming Samsung infringed on four design patents and
three utility patents. According to Apple, Samsung has sold 22.7 million
devices in the US that take advantage of Apple’s intellectual property,
generating $ 8.16 billion in revenue and more than $ 2 billion in profits, thus
seeking $ 2.522 billion in damages.
In Samsungs
opening statement, Samsung reassured the jury that “Samsung is a major
technology company that develops its own innovations”. That it was a company
that prides itself on providing consumers the products that they want – and if
consumers want touchscreen devices, that’s what the company would provide.
The battle
raged on for three weeks coming to an end on the 21st of August,
with both sides issuing their closing statements.
In its
closing statement Apple’s lawyers said “Steve Jobs shocked the world” with the
iPhone, and how did Samsung respond to that? They used three months to design
what would become the original Galaxy S. “In those three months Samsung was
able to copy and emulate” the “World’s most successful product”. Apple’s
lawyers went on saying “No Samsung witness even sat in the chair and said
‘those designs are not similar’”, “The test is overall visual appearance not
[these] minor differences”.
In Samsung’s
closing statement, Samsung’s lawyers accused Apple of “attempting to block its
most serious competitor from even playing the game”, stressing that
“competition is what built this country [US]” Saying Apple thinks it’s
“entitled to have a monopoly on a rounded rectangle with a touchscreen”.
One Friday the 24th of August, 2012 after a short
deliberation of only three days, the jury has thus for ruled in favour of
Apple. The focus of this particular case involves whether Samsung infringed on
the variety of Apple patents.
The court also ruled that Samsung willing fully infringed on
Apple’s Patents on a wide variety of its Phones, about twenty five different models
to be exact, including the Galaxy S II to the infused 4G and more. Samsung has
been ordered to pay Apple $ 1,051,855,000. Since the incident Samsung has experience a significant drop
in its share prices as Apple pushes to have eight of Samsung’s smartphones
banned from being sold in the US. Apple as well as other struggling Smartphone
manufacturers such as Nokia and Blackberry experienced a significant rise in
their share price.
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