Apple wins lawsuit vs Samsung

[Hagi]

Two days?

That means that, assuming this jury didn't sleep, took no breaks and didn't eat beyond small snacks, took an entire four minutes per patent.

Four freaking minutes per patent.

Going with the, much more reasonable, assumption that they worked a normal 8 hours a day then they took an entire 80 seconds to discuss each patent.

Eighty freaking seconds per patent.

I'm very sorry but this just reeks of a biased jury. There's no possible way these patents could have received due consideration in the time this jury took.

This verdict has absolutely nothing to do with justice or law. A disgrace of the US judicial system.

 

[TheSapphireKnight]

Great, Apple now owns black rectangles. Good god this whole mess is ridiculous.

 

[FEichinger]

It's not "discussing each patent". It's 700 questions, some of which were along the lines of "Should Samsung have known" - which Apple quite distinctively proved with the analysis slides, or along the lines of "Does it contain feature X" which is nothing but "look at it, use it once, done."

 

[Gatx]

You're two well-informed persons with great insight into this trial. I am glad you could share your valuable opinion with us.

And now back to serious:

You can't tell me Samsung didn't blatantly copy both appearance and functionality of Apple's products. Neither can you tell me "THEY COPIED AS WELL!!!!" and "BUT THIS IS NECESSARY!" is an appropriate defence. Neither can you tell me Samsung's lawyers even looked like they were trying to win that trial./quote]There's only so many ways you can make an entirely touch screen smart phone. I mean it's the basic shape of any cellphone, maybe wider, and a touch sensitive screen.

 

[FinalFreak16]

Software patents are completely against innovation and encouraging creativity. The best work comes from building upon what others have already made. If thats not possible how can progress be made?

Innovation is perfectly fine. Implementing the exact same thing pretty much the exact same way is not. Progress can still be achieved by actually sufficiently altering the feature you adapt. Isn't that the whole point of innovation? Something new?

Suing someone for releasing a product that is exactly the same as yours is completely valid and I would support that. Thats trying to mooch of someone elses success. But in this case Apple (and Samsung as they are suing Apple for similar reasons) should not be able to claim ownership of intricate details within software.

Some examples of the kind of patents they are suing over involve;

Apple:
Tap to Zoom functionality,
Slide to Unlock phone by dragging an icon,
?bounce-back? functionality when a user moves past the end of a photo or list

Samsung:
The use of email on a camera phone.
Bookmarking an image in a photo album
Multitasking on a smart phone

Many of these features are not even unique to smart phones or tablets and have existed for years. Adding something someone else invented to a new device, claiming ownership of the idea and preventing others from doing the same is just wrong in my opinion. The industry would progress faster if companies werent always fighting over who invented what.

 

[Laughing Man]

Let's see American Judge, American Jury deciding the fate of an American company vs a South Korean company then add the fact that just about every other case held in other countries has ended in a stop wasting our time and get lost verdict. Weather it was fair or not weather their was bias doesn't matter it clearly proves that the American patent trial system is deeply flawed and that the patent system as a whole is wholly unsuitable for this kinda of market.

To put it another way it is like Apple suing someone for publishing a book that is the shape of a book. It has a spine on the left, it opens from the right and you read left to right before turning the page to continue.

The loser in all this is the consumer, less choice, more expensive and a market limited to a phone that has proven, through it's many many iterations that functionality; Bluetooth, removable batteries, expandable memory are either options or non existent and has proven time and again that it is not the best product of its type on the market.

 

[Plinglebob]

Thankfully this will only stifle competition in the US at the moment as other countries seem to have more sense in this area. In the UK it was ruled that Samsung did not copy Apple [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18895384]( though legally Samsung are now not as cool as Apple [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18773690]) an in South Korea they both got a slap on the wrist and basically told to stop being idiots [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19364875].

As someone who keeps a tinfoil hat on standby at all times, did anybody really expect the jury to side with the non-American company in this case?

 

[Shivarage]

Also, I bet some of these patents are shit like unlocking your phone wit finger swiping of some sort, yeah, Apple owns a patent on that.

Hehe, Apple owns the patent on touching your phone xDDD

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Every single Apple patent was upheld, and the 5 counter-claims Samsung made were all dropped. And this was all reviewed in just 2 days?

How do you review 705 individual patents in 2 days, that's a bit mad.

Well, if the jury were large you could divide up the patents in such a way each individual could do one. Though I'm not sure if that's how juries are supposed to work.

From what I understand about the case, this was 9 people who all had to pore over the patents and come to a consensus on each one.

Well that explains why the jury only took 2 days .

Jury member 1, "Right so that's the first patent done, man that took long time. How many left?"
Juror member 2, "704"
Juror member 1, "Oh fuck this let's just side with Apple. All in favour say aye"
Rest of Jury, "Aye"

On topic

Given the difference between the US and South Korean verdicts it just looks like patent disputes are going to get more messy as different countries will have different verdicts making innovation a legal minefield for companies. Of course choice choice for customers will suffer with verdicts like this. I'm not saying Apple should not defend their patents but some of patents they have seem ridiculous. Perhaps patent laws need revising.

 

[A Satanic Panda]

So... Apple sued Samsung because without their phone they could be a monopoly? Good on you Apple.

 

[blipblop]

still like the korean stuff better and will keep bying it

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

It's a shame... Imagine if the table had just been invented... and one guy made them all... and a second company make the same thing, but with 6 legs not 4, make it more stable, better and overall a lot more usable... and then he gets completely destroyed due to the first guy having a hissy fit...

 

[Something Amyss]

All Apple winning this case does is legitimize patent trolling, which is a practice that can only hurt the industry.

90% of the time, "patent trolling" is used incorrectly. This is not an exception.

 

[venom_steve]

I would be interested in seeing the bank statements of all involved and how much money was anonymously deposited during the "trial".