Dutch court says Samsung's rounded corners don't infringe Apple design
A Dutch court handed Apple its fourth patent defeat in a year on Wednesday, finding that the rounded corners of Samsung's Galaxy Tab products do not infringe on Apple's registered design features.
The ruling, handed down by a district court in The Hague, covers the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy Tab 8.9, and Galaxy Tab 7.7.
Apple had argued in court that the devices violated its rounded edge design patent, a design feature widely adopted among tablet manufacturers in the wake of the iPad's success. According to Reuters, however, the court sided with Samsung, and ruled the devices were not infringing on Apple's designs.
Samsung, in a statement, said that "Apple was not the first to design a tablet with a rectangular shape and rounded corners." The company went on to say that numerous examples of prior art exist for Apple's registered design features.
The decision is at least the fourth patent defeat for Apple in Dutch courts in the past year, following Samsung victories related to 3G patents and multitouch technology in June and October of last year, as well as a decision in January finding that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 did not violate other Apple design patents.
As is the case with Apple v. Samsung across much of the rest of the world, the Dutch courts have gone back and forth handing out victories between the two companies. Late last year, Apple won a ban on Galaxy products running Android 2.2.1 or later without Samsung's proprietary photo gallery software, due to their infringement on Apple's "rubber-banding" software patent. The two companies, mobile market leaders in terms of both profits and units sold, are locked in patent struggles across at least 10 countries.
The ruling, handed down by a district court in The Hague, covers the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy Tab 8.9, and Galaxy Tab 7.7.
Apple had argued in court that the devices violated its rounded edge design patent, a design feature widely adopted among tablet manufacturers in the wake of the iPad's success. According to Reuters, however, the court sided with Samsung, and ruled the devices were not infringing on Apple's designs.
Samsung, in a statement, said that "Apple was not the first to design a tablet with a rectangular shape and rounded corners." The company went on to say that numerous examples of prior art exist for Apple's registered design features.
The decision is at least the fourth patent defeat for Apple in Dutch courts in the past year, following Samsung victories related to 3G patents and multitouch technology in June and October of last year, as well as a decision in January finding that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 did not violate other Apple design patents.
As is the case with Apple v. Samsung across much of the rest of the world, the Dutch courts have gone back and forth handing out victories between the two companies. Late last year, Apple won a ban on Galaxy products running Android 2.2.1 or later without Samsung's proprietary photo gallery software, due to their infringement on Apple's "rubber-banding" software patent. The two companies, mobile market leaders in terms of both profits and units sold, are locked in patent struggles across at least 10 countries.
Comments
I wish that distinction would be made when Samsung and others discuss prior art. And the fact that people seem to ignore that nuance just further explains how those same people kept producing/accepting such pathetic designs for so long before Apple came along.
Has Samsung paid the billions they owe Apple yet, after losing to a bona-fide jury decision?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quadra 610
Has Samsung paid the billions they owe Apple yet, after losing to a bona-fide jury decision?
The Jury in the US also said The Galaxy Tab did not infringe on design patents. The award was for patent on the Galaxy line of phones.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quadra 610
Has Samsung paid the billions they owe Apple yet, after losing to a bona-fide jury decision?
They don't owe billions. . . YET. The case isn't over, much less a final amount owed set by the court. Lots of judicial decisions still to be made. Then it's nearly guaranteed that both Apple and Samsung will appeal some of those court rulings as neither will be totally happy.
[IMG ALT=""]http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/19194/width/350/height/700[/IMG]
Some HP prior "art" over a windows tablet, circa 2006, coming with rounded corners and bezel 'design features' worthy of a 'design patent'...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Tablet_PC
I am still stunned you sheep are still buying this whole rounded corners angle.
Take a look at the list of blackberry products. If you take a look at the BB Quark(), it has rounded corners. oh wait... they copied that from the Nokia 252 (1998). and if you take a look at the bb 7250 (2005) you'll see the icons that iphone created. RIM is evil, they are using a time machine to steal from apple!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ecs
Are there tablets with square corners?
Moses had one, or so legend goes.
What I find ludicrous is that this "article" is literally a reformatting of the Reuters article, which itself is just a quick note that Apple lost, followed by the "rounded corners" sound bite from Samsung, which AppleInsider lemmingly copied. Would it kill AppleInsider to piece together better coverage, additional context, or even a statement from the Dutch court?
Wait... Apple took Samsung to court over rounded corners? Seriously?
Sigh.
Just... for Pete's sake, Apple. Could you invest those resources back into product development, because this is just getting stupid.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cash907
Wait... Apple took Samsung to court over rounded corners? Seriously?
Sigh.
Just... for Pete's sake, Apple. Could you invest those resources back into product development, because this is just getting stupid.
No, they took it to court for blatant copying of look, shape, form, and feel. Something that take a lot of time, money, and resources to develop. And something that is so easy to steal.
Yes, it really is. Apple thinks they should have a monopoly on a round-cornered rectangle, and the courts are rightly smacking them down.
The Apple devices are very nice, I have them and use them - and I've probably been using and promoting Apple products longer than most people here. But don't fool yourself that the rectangle and circle are somehow inventions of Apple.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider898
I am still stunned you sheep are still buying this whole rounded corners angle.
Take a look at the list of blackberry products. If you take a look at the BB Quark(), it has rounded corners. oh wait... they copied that from the Nokia 252 (1998). and if you take a look at the bb 7250 (2005) you'll see the icons that iphone created. RIM is evil, they are using a time machine to steal from apple!
You must be kidding. Look at the blackberry icons, they are like from the Jetsons cartoon!
The patent D670,286 does not say anything about rounded corners. At least you should look it up before commenting. It's all about look, shape, and, form. Something that takes a lot of time and money to develop and very little to steal.
Lol. But that was only at the top...
Quote:"“Do you know how difficult the Omnia is to use? When you compare the 2007 version of the iPhone with our current Omnia, can you honestly say the Omnia is better? If you compare the UX with the iPhone, it’s a difference between Heaven and Earth.”
Then they said internally: "“Influential figures outside the company come across the iPhone, and they point out that ‘Samsung is dozing off.’ All this time we’ve been paying all our attention to Nokia, and concentrated our efforts on things like Folder, Bar, Slide. Yet when our UX is compared to the unexpected competitor Apple’s iPhone, the difference is truly that of Heaven and Earth. It’s a crisis of design.” If they're the innovators some would like us to believe, then why would they be "paying all their attention" to what others do? Because they copy, not innovate.
“I hear things like this: Let’s make something like the iPhone. When everybody (both consumers and the industry) talk about UX, they weigh it against the iPhone. The iPhone has become the standard. That’s how things are already.”
Yes, we all know what they were thinking, "lets copy Apple".
You only need to look [URL=http://phandroid.com/2012/08/07/apple-submits-internal-samsung-email-as-evidence-shows-sammy-willfully-copied-the-iphone-not-really/]here[/URL].
Courts may base their findings on legal grounds or facts at point, but we know what samescum's intentions were, its what they've been doing for decades. If only Sony had the balls to fight them 20 years ago, they wouldn't be so arrogant about copying today.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sensi
Seriously...
Some HP prior "art" over a windows tablet, circa 2006, coming with rounded corners and bezel 'design features' worthy of a 'design patent'...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Tablet_PC
How come the face isn't flat?
Prior art fail.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hill60
How come the face isn't flat?
Prior art fail.
/me might be stupid, but I feel you're nitpicking. Working as a lawyer maybe IRL? Apart from that, I can't see any other professional excuse
By the way, if you added an Apple-esque home button on that tablet in the photo and changed the screen to iOS, you've pretty much got an iPad.