http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-co ... ale-989830

It is hard to comment without knowing facts if this was justified or not but we all know what Apple is like sooo...

They do look fairly similar (the backs are different but from the front you'd struggle to tell them apart unless you knew which GUI looked like which) and you're always on a slightly sticky wicket being the second company to market with a 10.1 inch tablet anyway if it doesn't look sufficiently different to the first. I guess it depends if the complaint is about more than appearance - if it's any tablet with a 10.1 inch screen then that's more tricky and frankly, a bit of an overbearing decision by the judge - we don't say only one company is allowed to make 32" LCD TVs do we?

As for Apple being 'like this', what, have you been living under a rock for the last 18 months? ALL the major electronics companies have gone litigation/patent enforcement mad in the last 18 months or so, since the US patent office finally left the teetering edge of sanity behind. You can barely go a day without a story of one of them suing another one over some patent that nobody in their right mind thinks should have been granted in the first place. This is just the first time one of them has bothered to try it in the EU rather than the US, and it seems to simply indicate our lawyers are just as stupid as theirs...

JOn

Presumably when Samsung win on appeal, they will be due outrageous damages against Apple / the German court for illegally interfering with lawful business?

They will simply negotiate a settlement. Have a patent deal and license deal will settle this.

And while that particular game of poker is being played, irrevocable damage is being done to Samsung's sales and to their European retailers. Innocent people will probably lose jobs over this patent absurdity while lawyers get fat.

Yes it is ridiculous. Though it might not be that long. Though just long enough to screw up its UK launch.

It looks like a tablet... How is a portable handheld tablet, with a touch screen, supposed to look? It needs to be flat, rectangular, preferably a dark surround and a couple of physical buttons for activating, volume level etc. Should Samsung make it star shaped?

One of the photos on PC Pro shows the screen of the Tab, with widgets at the top and a list of icons at the bottom... How do you set up the iPad to display widgets on the home screen? That looks very different to me!

You're quite right, actually (about the damages bit, although not the appeal - the case hasn't been heard properly yet, the appeal comes later, and the appeal may be from Apple, not Samsung).

In seeking the preliminary injunction, Apple is opening itself up to reimbursing Samsung for costs and lost sales if the court eventually decides its case doesn't have merit. However, as Florian Mueller points out, the fact that the court granted the preliminary injunction means it feels Apple has a fairly strong case - not a certain case, but one that stands a good chance. For anyone who can read German and has the time, the actual complaint can be found here - clicky.

And of course, Australia's Federal Court has granted Apple an injunction against Samsung as well. Presumably they are equally liable there should they lose the case, although I'm not certain.

My gut feeling is Samsung will seek some sort of deal because even if they win, it could take a year or more of legal battles to get there. By that time the market will have moved on. Anyway, the two companies do have a very mutually beneficial relationship already.

While I don't disagree with your contention it's it's an idiotic lawsuit, you're conflating two things - the appearance the device and the GUI presented by the software it runs. Apple isn't suing Samsung because Android looks like iOS (because, obviously, it doesn't) they're suing them because the Tab 10.1 (specifically, they didn't sue them over the original Galaxy tab after all) is 'too' similar as a device to the iPad 2, or at least this is their contention. The comparison is not about what they do, it's about what they are. Effectively, Apple's claim is proceeding on what they look like when they're switched off.

Jon

Another satisfied user.

The whole tablet/PADD design idea was kicking around certainly in the 1980s when Star Trek:TNG kicked off. Sadly, this idea can’t be described as “prior art” as it’s a prop from a TV show, not an industrial design for a consumer product.

The USA is going patent crazy. Right now everyone is suing everyone else over patents. It is the American way of doing business. Oddly, Apple have recently moved their iPad screen orders to Samsung. Samsung seem to have a few spares kicking around.

Maybe the rumours of a 10.1" iPad 3 are true. And Apple want to secure supply of screens.

The suit in America is very much about the simularities between iOS and Samsungs gui. The European case is about both the hardware and the Samsung gui

there have been functioning tablets in this form since the 70s.

And ST:TOS also had a tablet like device.

This is getting silly. Now they want to do the same thing to Motorola Xoom.
http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-co ... oom-990276

Good news for Samsung though. Retailers can sell what they have in stock even when the ban is on. They just can't order anymore.
http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-co ... -uk-990818