Apple lodges more lawsuits against Samsung in Germany

by Tom Brewster  |  Friday 20 January 2012
Apple lodges more lawsuits against Samsung in Germany

The Apple vs. Samsung war rages on in Germany with two more lawsuits.

Apple has brought two new lawsuits against Samsung in Germany, as the two continue to do patent battle in Europe.

One lawsuit claims 10 Samsung phones infringe Apple intellectual property, whilst the other alleges five tablets do the same, according to Bloomberg.

Apple has had some success in its patent war with Samsung in Germany. In September, the Dusseldorf Regional Court upheld a ban on the Galaxy Tab. Samsung responded by simply changing its product so it didn't infringe Apple patents and renamed the tablet.

IP expert Florian Mueller discovered which design patents Apple was asserting in the smartphone lawsuit, revealing two design rights were being brought to court.

"Both were filed in the names of about a dozen inventors including (in both cases) Steve Jobs and Jony Ive," Mueller said in a blog post.

"I believe it will be much harder for the two litigants to settle their disagreements over product design than the ones over technical inventions… For those design rights issues, it may not be possible to structure a mutually acceptable settlement. The two companies may just need the courts to clarify the boundaries of Apple's exclusive design-related rights."

Samsung has attempted to stop Apple selling products across the world, recently trying to get the iPhone 4S banned in France and Italy.

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Comments: 10
photohounds
20 January 2012
 Ree these people STILL flogging the dead iHorse?

Prediction - Well not really a prediction, history will merely repeat, thus:)

1 The court may be silly enough to grant another temprary injunction - that worked well to slow the competitor's christmas sales which was the objective after all.

2 After proper consideration, throw out almost all of it (again - because it is largely baseless). I read with interest Apple's recent document denying that rounded rounded corners were out of practicaliyy and utility but were some 'innovative asthetic design feature'.
(Ever put a hole in your pocket by storing sharp-edged items in it?) Laughable claims indeed.

3. Throw the frouit loops a few scraps which some magazines will spine as a "win for fruit-land".

Groan ...

In the meantime the other side will advanste the state of the art again (see their latest TV releases which fruit loops will probably copy some of and calim to have invented.

A great pity this company's legal fools cannot let them get back to being clever. Instead they steer the fruit ones into trying to AVOID having to compete.

A greater pity that magazines allow iFans to hang on to silly hopes.

I note the iphone 4s casued a small blip in their sales - as I predicted ... This is also being spun very interestingly by some 'reporters' who prefer not to let the facts get in the way of a good iStory.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/19607/apple_closing_in_android?source=CTWNLE_nlt_pm_2012-01-19

...


Comment made about the PC & Tech Authority article:
Apple lodges more lawsuits against Samsung in Germany?
The Apple vs. Samsung war rages on in Germany with two more lawsuits.

What do you think? Join the discussion.
amcmo
20 January 2012
 Ah Photo,

Apple only lodge these suits to give Android fanboy fruit-loops an extra excuse to complain.

After all there are only so many times you can go on about the non-existent additional 'freedom' of Android and other non-existent supposed advantages.

As for the supposed small blip it's a damned big 'small blip'.

Again sales figures show the iPhone holding the top 3 sales positions in the US market. 1 manufacturer running neck and neck with Samsung, and even doing a pretty good job against the combined might of all the Android mfr's.

Much as you constantly try to rubbish Apple's sales sucess, they are not doing too badly, and still make over 50% of all phone market profits...
photohounds
20 January 2012
 Try developg your own app for an android device. (don't forget to close the door after you openr the 'allow unofficial updates' to install your app, minutes after you've prepared it.

Consumers don't give a toss how profitable apple is - shareholders would. Cosumers want to know 'what will it do for the money I pay', so the 'iGreed is more profitable' is getting tired, mate.

It's a small blip - a 'new model blip'. It would have been interesting if they had both released a new model at the same time. Logic indicates the blip would have be in the other direction.
amcmo
20 January 2012
 You can just as easily develop an app for iOS, with free tools, or subscribe for something like $100 p/a and get pre-release verions of the OS as well, that you can install on any Apple hardware that supports it, as opposed tofor the OS upgrade that may or may not come if your with the 'free' OS.

Actually, as a consumer I do care how profitable a company is, gives me an idea of how liklely they are to be able to support their products in future years.

As for Samsung, they have been releasing new products non-stop. Versions of the Galaxy 2S and other Samsungs plus Nexus, not to mention HTC, Moto etc have been released at various carriers around the world during the same time frame. So much for logic!
rubaiyat
24 January 2012
photohounds wrote:
Try developg your own app for an android device. (don't forget to close the door after you openr the 'allow unofficial updates' to install your app, minutes after you've prepared it.


...so it can be stolen within minutes, days at the outside.

The "freedom loving" 'Droids can then download a copy with lashings of malware sauce.
skarpethinn
26 January 2012
 i will agree with one argument brought up in this thread: flinging about all these lawsuits does detract from the actual push to be competitive/innovative.

Worried about a competitor closing in you, catching up with your profit margin? Don't bother lavishing millions of dollars on R&D and promoting new areas of inventiveness, just throw those same millions at burying the competitor, shut them out of the market, and simply cannibalise whatever they leave behind.

What the "anti-Apple fanboys" are accusing the Cupertino camp of doing is exactly what the "anti-Microsoft fanboys" were accusing the Redmond giant of 15-20 years ago, and i can't necessarily disagree.

You Americans are (collectively) such a litigious bunch, opertaing with/within such a corrupt 'justice' system that you have to be expecting this sort of thing, and on a regular basis.

As with a lot of common-person litigation cases, as seen on shows like People's Court and Judge Judy, you have to expect some of the big-business suits to be utter bollocks, little better than clutching at straws. Stratifying a society does not stratify its actions, or its intentions (or their outcomes).

And note here, Apple have launched these new suits in the conutry in which they were previously succesful; no word in this article about an attempt to try these new claims in Australia, where they ultimately lost the last set of injuctions/suits.

Edited by skarpethinn: 26/1/2012 03:39:22 PM
amcmo
27 January 2012
 The only part I'd disagree with is

"just throw those same millions at burying the competitor"

I can't comment on all players, however there's no sign Apple are doing one to the detriment of the other. They appear to be developing and innovating PLUS suing, but then they have $Bn's in cash.

The problem is indeed with the justice system and patent laws. All except Samsung (+ Moto?) with the FRAND patents are using the law as it currently stands, wrong as the law may be. With the FRAND patents Samsung have attempted to re-write the law and thus far been slapped down.
rubaiyat
27 January 2012
 Apple's lawyers are like all lawyers, they sue because they can and it justifies their existence.

Also if they don't Apple may as well just forget about patents, and IPR of any kind. Where those two exist, sooner or later you are going to have to unleash the legal dogs or lose them.
skarpethinn
28 January 2012
 don't forget also - Steve Jobs went on public record a while ago to say that he had a personal mission to "destroy Android" (his words).
amcmo
1 February 2012
 Just a minor (short) point, skarpethinn.

If I thought one of the directors of my company had used information provided to come out with a competitor and had enticed a senior staff member to leave and apply information learned at my company to a competing product, I'd have something rich to say! Perhaps not to the same extreme.

Not saying that's 100% correct, however that's obviously how Jobs felt.

If you thought that, are you saying you'd have just smiled and 'taken it like a man'

Edited by amcmo: 1/2/2012 05:46:24 PM
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