Apple blocks sale of Samsung's Android fondleslab across EU Apple has won a preliminary injunction blocking the sale of Samsung's Android-based Galaxy Tab fondleslab across almost all of the European Union. The Samsung tablet went on sale in Britain just last week. According to a Google Translation of a report from German news agency dpa, the Regional Court of Dusseldorf has granted …
Having ownered and used an iPad for 9 months and then getting a Motorola Xoom, I would say that the Xoom and a lot of the other higher end tablets are definiately competition. I have now sold my iPad and replaced it completely with my Xoom. I am, personally, much happier with my Xoom, but appreciate everyones requirements differ.
If you look at it, it seems clear that every single thing Apple does has been leifted straight from Android. I mean, look at the first Android prototype, and tell me that doesn't look every bit like the first iPhone that came after it. Or the boatload of Android tablets. Obviously Apple slavishly copied those designs
... Remember the films of cold hungry Russians queueing up to buy the regulation loaf of bread (only one variety on offer in limited quantities) ? In 5 years time that'll be us queueing up outside Apple Stores to buy the only computing device allowed us by the Union of Apple/Patent Office/WTO. Meanwhile in Asia they'll have a choice of zillions of different widgets which burn less juice, are lighter, cheaper, easier to use etc.
On the plus side I reckon we'll still be able to brew a decent beer/cider so we can at least get rat-arsed while we wait for our iPads to sync up over our crumbling 3G infrastructure.
I wonder if ever Mercedes tries to sue BMW just because their car design is so similar to theirs e.g.(4 wheels, engine, doors, seats,steering wheel....) if any perfectly able minded judge would agree with an injunction to the rival company?
What's next, Nike vs Adidas.
On a side note, how much does Apple pay judges anyway...
Why the hell haven't they sued every other car manufacturer for using petrol engines ?
OK thats a joke, I dont want to be inundated with 'A brief guide to motoring history' by a sh*tload of ipad owners :D
But really Apple, stop sueing every point one improvement and try creating something NEW, something you have never managed yet. I believe the term is 'stands on the shoulders of giants', you have never created the first instance of anything yet let loose dogs of war on anyone who stands on your shoulders.
This way for the downvotes folks :D
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before commenting, take a look at the linked 'community design'. the most ridiculous thing is it doesn't even _look like an ipad_: it's a featureless rectangle with a screen. I mean, really, what idiot decided that warranted protection? apparently we need to put the European Community Design Office or whoever the hell does this stuff on the List of Shame right next to the USPTO...
They are the N^1 company of PLANED OBSOLECENCE. They made the first tab equal to iphone, without 50cents front camera and many things more to seduce to buy the next one, a tipical strategy of a greener company.
Sams galaxy, like many other with nvidia tegra2cpu, are far more complete than any other product of apple.
An also, at cheaper price. Thats the true.
PUNISH APPLE in the worst, dont buy apple.
...many companies do this, not just IT companies. Back back in IT, what about Samsung? Tab 2 out one year after the first. Galaxy S2 one year after the first. HTC are the same.
Ignoring tablets and phones for a moment, the only company who didn't seem to worry about making laptops/PC's only last 3 years was IBM and their thinkpads. Mine's 6 years old and going strong. Look at a 3 year old dell for comparison, and marvel at the shiny wrist pads, worn keys, worn trackpad, peeling paint, creaking chassis, knackered DVD drive, noisy fan, dim screen...
And Apple aren't the worst either - how many here still have fully functioning G4 12' macbooks? How many are still running and upgrading their Mac Pro's?
Fine - take a downer on Apple. But at least make sure it's for the right reasons. How about their legal spat with Samsung for instance, trying to crush them out the market?
Looking at the linked article, Even Apple haven't patented the design of the ipad. The picture just shows a rectangular slab with a bezel. It doesn't even show the home button as being present. Because of that Samsung should be allowed to copy the ipad exactly including the home button as it doesn't appear on the design patent or even better patent the design with the button and sue the arse off Apple. From the pictures looking straight at the front it looks like Apple have been granted the design of a window. Also, doesn't the ipad have a slightly convex shaped back. That picture looks surprisingly flat if not a little concave therefore it isn't an ipad. What idiot allowed that to even be processed never mind granted. What about the connector? Do Apple have the 'design' patent on putting a connector in the centre of the short edge on a rectangle now?
This so called patent should be declared null and void. Some common sense EU please, lets not get dragged down to the same level as the U.S.
"Because of that Samsung should be allowed to copy the ipad exactly including the home button as it doesn't appear on the design patent or even better patent the design with the button and sue the arse off Apple."
Thom Holwerda at OS News decided to take a look through the community design archives for designs with Apple listed as the owner, which elicited such gems as http://oami.europa.eu/bulletin/rcd/2006/2006_030/000465109_0009/images/000465109_0009_1_source.jpg (any cellphone, circa 1996), http://oami.europa.eu/bulletin/rcd/2009/2009_091/000672332_0009/images/000672332_0009_4_source.jpg (a long rectangle), and http://oami.europa.eu/bulletin/rcd/2008/2008_041/000839469_0019/images/000839469_0019_1_source.jpg (a folder icon). Either this is another ridiculous EU process which requires some kind of native interpreter to understand, or whichever body grants these 'community designs' is acting seriously outside its remit.
According to Wikipedia (as of Feb 2011, so it hasn't had recent political edits yet), community designs are supposed to be granted on designs that "are novel, that is if no identical design has been made available to the public" and "have individual character, that is the "informed user" would find it different from other designs which are available to the public." So it's sort of a combination of patent and trademark concepts - you're not supposed to make something which looks so similar to someone else's novel design that you're sort of 'passing off' as it.
It may have escaped your attention that the white plastic Macbook isn't actually part of the the Macbook range any more - just the Macbook Air and Macbook Pro, both of which pre-date the Samsung Series 9 by a few years, and are made of aluminium, which also "won't shatter into white plastic pieces"!
macbooks are all aluminium now - not white plastic. Last white plastic one left the factory earlier this year. And given it's only an 8 inch drop, even the old ones will be fine. And 8 inches??? how about 2-3 feet? I've done exactly that and continues working a treat, plastic fully intact. Try dropping an old samsung instead and watch it shatter into black plastic pieces...
Also, bootcamp = running all the apps you listed on apple hardware, but why you'd want to run full fat photoshop on a laptop, I'm not sure...
Can we get back to the original point - Apple gaming the patent system and the courts to crush the competition?
Can't wait for my triangular Samsung Galaxy 3 (see what I did there :-) )
There things that can and should be patented, and things that shouldn't be, hmm how about patenting the look and feel of a wheel? Its round with a central hub, no-one can have one looking the same!
There are natural shapes for things, triangular doesn't work for pads, black is a colour, you can't possibly patent a "black bezel" can you? In that case could samung make a "white bezel" patent that, then prevent anyone making a pad type device with a white bezel? How soon do we run out of colours?
"This story just highlights how fucked up the Germany judiciary is."
It's like the way the German customs police raided a trade show a couple of years back (although they're probably there every year) and confiscated products on some uppity vendor's say-so. A great place to do business, I'm sure.
Am I the only one here who remembers the "look-and-feel" lawsuits of the 80s?
Lotus sued companies that cloned 1-2-3. Apple sued Digital Research, Inc. over GEM. (Apple even claimed that the trash can was proprietary!)
Now, nearly 30 years hence, we are being treated to "Look-and-Feel II -- The Sequel," soon to be playing at a courtroom near you.
Shakespeare got it wrong. First, kill the people who hire the lawyers!
Getting Samsung's device pulled gets Apple some good headlines and morale points, even if it's overturned later.
Apple has a bit of a problem. It brought out a good niche product in the ipad, compared to the alternatives. Apple's problem is Google and Android. Google has no interest in per-device profit - it wants lots of devices out there to advertise to. That spoils Apple's game where it is very much interested in per-device profit.
So far, the non-Apple tablets have been pretty mediocre. Actually, Apple's tablet is also mediocre, but they actually pay attention to the most important things that people want (battery, good viewing screen, good touch screen, good handling) and cut back on all other bits that compromise those features.
The issue for Apple is, can they delay enough android tablets in order to scare off manufacturers so that no-one but Apple puts R&D into things like battery and chip design? If they can do that, then they'll have the tablet market to themselves. They know that Android can (has) easily closed the gap on features and prettiness, Apple's ace cards is the hardware. They cannot afford to allow any other reasonable hardware onto the market. In consumer electronics, delay generally equals death and if Apple can get some headlines saying Samsung cheated and has to be punished, then it doesn't matter if it turns out to be untrue, it's "job done" for Apple's legal and PR depts.
Personally, I'm a bit disappointed in the Samsung tablet. I don't think Samsung can win by closing the platform. They could win by being a better ipad than the ipad, or at least a better tablet than the other android tablets and cheaper than the ipad. I'd like to see better addressbook sync'ing, accessibility by google navigation to google address books, some decent battery life (Galaxy S I'm looking at you!).
If you really want to be innovative, how about a nice fast phone and have the tablet as a docking station? Ooh look, the tablet is a screen and battery and doesn't need a cpu at all, or wifi or bluetooth or 3g... How cheap is that? (perhaps not very, but worth exploring...)
Perhaps samsung could do something interesting like add dect to their mobiles so you can pick up your landline when you get home without needing a dedicated VOIP server. Or perhaps a landline basestation which can auto-sync with your mobile's addressbook over bluetooth.
The community design is vague as hell, so Samsung if you are listening. Cut off corner on one edge, put a bottle opener there and hey presto! It's a completely different product!
In all seriousness who approved that design! All it seems to say is Handheld computer and a flat screen with bezel. No dimensions no buttons, no nothing.
It is like gaining rights to a wheel or cardboard box, wardrobe, table, anything that has a basic design.
I assume money changes hands in order for these rights to be granted. Does anyone know? If the rights are rejected do they give the money back? Because it seems that someone is getting rich from this.
Or is it more work to reject these things and people just think its easier to just say yes to any and all ridiculous application.
It's all the others trying to compete with Apple - and seeing that Apple outsell all the others........
Go back a bit. Tablet computers have been around for quite some time but (as commenter have pointed out in many other Reg trreads) they never got out of their very tiny niche market. Most of those that I saw (and I've probably only seen about a dozen over 10 years) were as thick (or thicker) as laptops, very heavy and used a stylus for input and didn't appear to be that eay to use.
Out of the blue Apple launches iPad - a tablet that smashes all previously tablet concepts and is instantly useable by anyone that picks it up - even tiny children.
Oh it will never take off! - Apple is pouring money down a black hole!. It's not a real computer! Who would buy something that can't run Flash?
A few months later all the majors are scrabbling to get a tablet out of the door as they suddenly realise that Apple has changed the game. There is a market for tablets and if they don't do something quickly Apple will run away with the market.
After a few hiccups most of them managed to get something out - only Samsung just copied Apple's product.
The competition still has a way to go to beat Apple. While I'm out and about I see quite a few tablets now - iPads or Kindles.
"A few months later all the majors are scrabbling to get a tablet out of the door as they suddenly realise that Apple has changed the game. There is a market for tablets and if they don't do something quickly Apple will run away with the market."
So society has to reward the first-mover by granting a monopoly to them? I hate to say it, but you'd be paying a toll to some company you've never heard of who managed to launch a tablet product in the 1980s - not Apple - if that were the rule.
"While I'm out and about I see quite a few tablets now - iPads or Kindles."
So e-reader vendors copied Apple, including Sony who had mainstream products out years before the *iPhone*? Clue up, please!
I'm not sure I fully understand what you are trying to say. I certainly did not say (or imply) that society had to reward the first mover - nor that it was it Apple.
I'll paraphrase - tablets - been around a long time - sold in very small numbers - niche markets - difficult to use.
Apple launches iPad - sells in huge numbers - very easy to use - worldwise market - changes the game.
Other companies - Aagh
The other companies manage to come up with a tablet of their own - except for Samsung who appear to copy Apple's design and packaging.
To clear your misunderstanding I'll modify my out and about line because nowhere have I said that Kindle and Sony have copied Apple. The readers are (in case you haven't noticed) completey different products and don't look anything like an iPad - but they are tablets.
I think you missed the implied irony in the catch-up comment.
If I see a tablet it is either an iPad, a Kindle or an e-Reader - i.e. it is NOT one of the other makes.
Is anyone else tired of the continual Apple BS? Apple are always trying to sue or intimidate using their whiny snydy tactics, yet have been sued countless times for stealing other companies ideas, or for mis-advertising the capabilities of it's grossly over-priced products. Apple fanbois always whine the loudest and are often the most misinformed. I had to laugh when I found out that a couple of studios (who consider me a rival and slate me because i still use XP) spend more time trying to fix their Apple hardware issues or remove viri from their 'virus free' platform than actually being productive. Plus, the majority of folk i know who have had iPhones dumped it for Android (for a variety of reasons). Even my computer illiterate parents (OAP's) have moved to Windows.
- Apple just plane sux and is now officially (word on the street) uncool, and Fanbois (officially the lowest 'nerd status' get picked on by true nerds (wtf?)
I sooo wish Bill Gates hadn't bailed them out, Apple would now be gone, and as a bonus, MS would have been split in 5 - instead we all loose, Apple and MS still exist ,and we get Apple blather overload - still,... reading about Apples BS makes for a good sleeping aid zzzzzzzzzz
".. spend more time trying to fix their Apple hardware issues or remove viri from their 'virus free' platform than actually being productive."
I call bo11ox on this with a capital B and 2 Ls.
I've been in the Mac support business for getting on for 20 years, supporting small businesses and domestic users. I have yet to find a Mac with a virus.
Can you please also list the hardware issues that are plaguing your users that are not the same hardware issues that would affect any make of computer.
The only Mac specific failure that impacts on productitivy that I know of is power supplies in certain tower units. Even so, I've only had to deal with 3 of those in the last 5 years.
And please - Bill Gates did not bail out Apple. How many more times must it be said?
> Can you please also list the hardware issues
> that are plaguing your users that are not the
> same hardware issues that would affect any
> make of computer.
What happened to all of the "Macs are BMWs" nonsense?
So suddenly because people come out of the woodwork with their Mac horror stories, you're going to pretend that this somehow hasn't been a standard Apple marketing point for the last 20 years? If a Mac is little more than a Chevy with a prettier exterior (as some of us say) then what's the point really?
In my own personal experience, Apple rates at the bottom for reliability of brand name ready made PCs. The way they build their boxes probably doesn't help. They're probably very prone to cooking themselves.
BillG didn't "bail out" Apple.
IIRC, Jobs nailed MS red-handed on an unbeatable case of IPR theft, and allowed BillG to keep face via a financial deal that was favourable to Apple financially in the short term, and generally in the long-term. BillG got to keep the image he was creating for himself intact.
Want a Samsung 10.1
Seriously.
If it's THAT good that Apple are going to this lame lengths to prevent people getting one (as they could sue without banning people's access to it, I'm sure), then I want one. Badly.
Fantastic advertising for Samsung if they spin it the right way, too.
So a regional court in Dusseldorf controls the whole European market now? Did I authorise this?
That "Community Design" seems to outlaw frozen pizzas as well. Also DVDs. And some picture frames.
This is grade-A, Highest-quality bullshit. I'd love to know whose palms were greased on this one...
It's hilarious to see all the Apple haters getting their panties in a bunch about this! The arguments trotted out against Apple are equally entertaining. Litigating because they can't compete? Hello! Reality calling! The iPad is utterly dominating the tablet market, far from not being able to compete, there basically is no competition for the iPad. If Samsung, Motorola, RIM et al keep churning out 3rd rate products that no one wants to buy (and even of those that *are* bought, most are returned) then Apple really have nothing to worry about. That doesn't (and shouldn't) stop them however from taking action if someone is blatantly ripping them off. It's the same as Ferrari (successfully) suing the kit car manufacturers for selling "replica" Ferraris, even though Ferrari have nothing to fear from those outfits.
Now about Apple not innovating. So Apple didn't invent the first computer with a GUI and mouse. So Apple didn't invent the world's first ever touch screen tablet computer. So they didn't invent the world's first ever portable HDD based MP3 player. So they didn't invent the first ever touch screen mobile phone. So what? Apple *did* produce the first ever *successful* computer with a GUI and mouse. Apple *did* produce the first ever *successful* HDD MP3 player. They produced the first ever *successful* touch screen tablet computer. They produce what is by far the most *successful* touch screen smartphone. Edison didn't invent the light bulb. He *did* however invent the first commercially viable one. That's innovation just as important, or even more so, than the original idea.
"Edison didn't invent the light bulb. He *did* however invent the first commercially viable one."
And he did sue and bully his competitors. Well done: in your little rant with the usual vague terminology like "rip off" that acts as a feeble substitute for critical thinking, you've managed to stumble on the right precedent.
Apple is like Edison. And that's not meant as a compliment.
"Apple *did* produce the first ever *successful* computer with a GUI and mouse. Apple *did* produce the first ever *successful* HDD MP3 player. They produced the first ever *successful* touch screen tablet computer. They produce what is by far the most *successful* touch screen smartphone."
The fact that those things were successful has less to do with any real innovation and more to do with an excellent marketing department and a veritable army of zombie twats who must have the new iShiny just so they feel cool.
Marketing + Stupidity != Innovation
Care to re-read your post?
Yes the iPad is dominating the tablet market. So when a competitor comes along with a better product, Apple use some mickey mouse lititagtion to stop them selling their product rather than using advertising, sales, competative pricing, etc to beat them. So rather than compete on a level playing field they shoot down the othe teams players. That's not competing... its cheating.
You continue to say that Apple did not invent X but they innovated it. How is this different to what samsung are doing? They have made their own spin on a tablet Computer and have been penalised for doing so because it is the same shape as the ipad.
Please tell me you clicked the link in the article that shows apples case against samsung, and please don't tell me they have a point.
On a sude note shouldn't Apple be trying to put this same case against the rest of the tablet computer manufacturers, after all, they will all be in violation of it. Unless of course Apple doesn't see them as a competative threat.
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