Court documents allegedly show Samsung copied iPhone icons

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
New Apple v. Samsung court documents, presented by Apple on Monday as part of the ongoing Apple v. Samsung trial, allegedly show Samsung's proprietary home-screen icon designs are nearly identical to that of the iPhone's.

The collection of photos show Apple-designed icons for the iPhone's Settings, iTunes, Photos, Contacts, Phone and Notes apps, all of which bear striking resemblance to similar UI assets seen on Samsung smartphones.

Of the Samsung handsets sampled, including the Captivate, Galaxy Ace and Galaxy S, each featured iconography which was almost identical to Apple's designs. The South Korean company employs a custom UI skin over Google's Android operating system, called TouchWiz, thus the icons are specific to Samsung devices. The latest version of TouchWiz, Nature UX, was recently released with the Galaxy S III handset.

Apple registered a number of icons as trademarks in 2010, an example of which is provided below.

Phone  width=


From Monday's court documents:

Phone
Source: Apple v. Samsung court documents

Contacts

Messaging

iTunes

Settings

Notes

Photos
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 102
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member


    Uh, "allegedly"? I've been posting proof of this nonsense for months.


     


    image


     


    They need taken out behind the chemical sheds and shot. Some good ol' Room 101 action for them. Monetary damages aren't even enough anymore. Buying back all old device stock and being forced to have a committee oversee all future designs isn't enough. The fact that Apple will use this suit to win in every other country imaginable to do the same thing isn't enough.


     


    I'd want them out of the phone business entirely.


     


    "You want a monopoly!"




    I want competition. And since in five years they've refused to actually do their own thing, it's evident they never will.

  • Reply 2 of 102
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Some of those are very obvious. Sunflower for photos? There's no other picture they could have used? And a phone has to be a 1980 vintage handset against a green background? Give me a break.

    Others, though, are not so obvious. The messaging icon doesn't impress me as an obvious copy. It seems generic enough. The contacts one also doesn't impress me much - although the binding on the left of the icons is perhaps suggestive. Notes? What else does a note look like? If they had chosen post-it notes, then people would have been complaining about Apple's Stickies. That one looks pretty generic. Settings? Could go either way. The music one also doesn't look like an obvious copy. After all, what represents music more than a couple of notes and a CD?
  • Reply 3 of 102
    lerxtlerxt Posts: 186member
    Like the rest of Asia, Koreans obviously struggle for original ideas.
  • Reply 4 of 102


    I never realized that Samsung's music icon is basically the old iTunes icon color corrected to purple.


     


    The only reason you copy icons is to make your device look like an iPhone.

  • Reply 5 of 102
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member


    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post

    The messaging icon doesn't impress me as an obvious copy. It seems generic enough.


     


    Oh, yeah. That icon sure had to use green. And the tail sure had to be on the same side as Apple's.





    Notes? What else does a note look like?


     


    White paper with blue lines, white paper with red lines, white paper with a black top, white paper with a red top, yellow paper with a black top… About seven thousand different combinations that wouldn't be a direct rip of Apple's stuff.


     




    Settings? Could go either way. 



     


    That's the only one that I think Apple will have trouble getting unanimous assent over, unless you go by the image I posted, in which case it's blindingly obvious.






    The music one also doesn't look like an obvious copy. After all, what represents music more than a couple of notes and a CD?



     


    How about anything else ever, since that's an exact duplicate of the iTunes icon? You honestly don't think they didn't copy anything there? Honestly?

  • Reply 6 of 102


    The iTunes 9 logo, FYI:


     


    image

  • Reply 7 of 102
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Oh, yeah. That icon sure had to use green. And the tail sure had to be on the same side as Apple's.

    White paper with blue lines, white paper with red lines, white paper with a black top, white paper with a red top, yellow paper with a black top… About seven thousand different combinations that wouldn't be a direct rip of Apple's stuff.


    That's the only one that I think Apple will have trouble getting unanimous assent over, unless you go by the image I posted, in which case it's blindingly obvious.

    How about anything else ever, since that's an exact duplicate of the iTunes icon? You honestly don't think they didn't copy anything there? Honestly?

    What I think is irrelevant. What matters is what Apple can prove. And some of these are going to be harder to prove than others.
  • Reply 8 of 102

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


     


     


    White paper with blue lines, white paper with red lines, white paper with a black top, white paper with a red top, yellow paper with a black top… About seven thousand different combinations that wouldn't be a direct rip of Apple's stuff.


     


     


     



    Legal pad is yellow paper ...no way around that one

  • Reply 9 of 102
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    According to The Verge one of Apple's expert witness faltered under cross examination from Samsung.

    http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/6/3223372/peter-bressler-testimony-apple-samsung-trial
  • Reply 10 of 102
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member


    Originally Posted by jigjag69 View Post

    Legal pad is yellow paper ...no way around that one




    Because notes cannot—and have not in the history of human writing—be taken on any other medium than a legal pad. 

  • Reply 11 of 102
    mrstepmrstep Posts: 523member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post





    What I think is irrelevant. What matters is what Apple can prove. And some of these are going to be harder to prove than others.


    Some are clearly total rip-offs of the trademarked icons, the others seem inspired by the spirit of them (similar color combos, sunflower leaves), though whether those violate the trademark may be a tougher call just because... they're such BAD rip-offs. But the intent is fairly evident across all of them with maybe the exception of the gear for their settings. I think people would have a really tough time mistaking that ugly blue gear for what Apple has, though using a gear for that I guess could be considered copying - but I know I've seen gears used for setting stuff over the years. Wrenches too.


     


    But at least half of them seem like a pretty easy demonstration of direct copying, which maybe helped Samsung sell more of their knock-offs. Hopefully they get to pay Apple for that priviledge now.

  • Reply 12 of 102
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member


    Originally Posted by mrstep View Post

    …whether those violate the trademark may be a tougher call just because… they're such BAD rip-offs.


     


    Here's the kicker, though: Is it the quality of the knock-off that determines the outcome or is it the fact that they (blatantly) ARE knockoffs?

  • Reply 13 of 102
    mrstepmrstep Posts: 523member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post




    Because notes cannot—and have not in the history of human writing—be taken on any other medium than a legal pad. 



     


    No doubt. It's almost as pathetic as the iTunes icon rip-off.

  • Reply 14 of 102
    rogifan wrote: »
    According to The Verge one of Apple's expert witness faltered under cross examination from Samsung.
    http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/6/3223372/peter-bressler-testimony-apple-samsung-trial

    In any trial, When the defense (plaintiff) is on, it always looks like their side has the winning arguments. You have to wait until both sides have had the chance to question a witness before making any judgments.

    The one thing that does surprise me is why Apple hasn't brought to the stand -- and grilled -- more Samsung insiders and designers, e.g., the people who actually created these logos and asked them (under oath) their source of inspiration (and to back it up with evidence). It certainly looks to me like Samsung's legal team is far more aggressive and detailed.
  • Reply 15 of 102
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,927member


    one should also post the stock Android icons to see why they would change from that.

  • Reply 16 of 102
    eriamjheriamjh Posts: 1,763member


    Even microsoft was smart enough to invert the colors of the mouse cursor when they copied Mac OS.

  • Reply 17 of 102
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,389member


    Holy shit. Game, set, and match. I don't see who the hell can look at these icons and pretend its coincidence, or that Samsung didn't specifically set out to make it as similar as possible. Give me a fucking break. Shameless, I'd be fucking embarrassed if I designed those icons. 

  • Reply 18 of 102
    zozmanzozman Posts: 393member


    Samsung really shat the bed here... :p between this & Samsung's internal memo, i laughed so hard! :)

  • Reply 19 of 102
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member


    Originally Posted by Eriamjh View Post

    Even microsoft was smart enough to invert the colors of the mouse cursor when they copied Mac OS.


     


    Should've been a pink and black phone icon, then. image

  • Reply 20 of 102
    ivladivlad Posts: 742member
    Really can't stand people saying that these are obvious! Samsung copied even same colors and place icons on screen to make it look like an iPhone. Is that so obvious? If I was a company that was trying to compete with apple, ripping off their obvious icons is the last thing I will do. Have anyone seen themes on jailbreak iPhomes? There are some most original icons I've seen. It's amazing how STUPID Samsung is. Can't even change color from green to yellow!
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