Google prepping software patch to help Samsung dodge Galaxy Nexus injunction

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Google has said it will soon release a software patch that will remove the potentially infringing search functionality from Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone and could help it avoid the sales ban recently imposed by a U.S. court.

The Mountain View, Calif., company told The Next Web on Tuesday that it was planning to "imminently" release the new software.

The update will reportedly disable local search options from the unified search feature on the homescreen of the Galaxy Nexus. Voice search on the device is also expected to be restricted to just Web queries, without any local options.

Samsung experienced yet another legal setback on Tuesday when U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh shot down the company's request to stay the ban while it appeals. Though Apple had asked for a preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Nexus on the basis of four patents, the court granted the injunction last week specifically for a search-related patent entitled "Universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system."

It's not immediately clear, however, whether Samsung would be able to sell the Galaxy Nexus after the patch is released, as the court would presumably need to decide whether the new software actually removed the suspected infringement.





The Korean electronics giant responded on Tuesday to the news that its motion to stay had been denied, noting that it was "disappointed" with the decision. The company said in a statement that it will continue with its appeal and keep "working closely" with Google on the issue.

As of late Tuesday evening, the Galaxy Nexus was no longer directly on sale on the Google Play Store and was listed as "Coming Soon," as noted by The Verge, though it's not known whether the change is directly related to the injunction.

Google and Samsung announced the Galaxy Nexus as the reference device for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich last October. The device went on sale in the U.S. last December.

Samsung's full statement as provided to The Next Web:
Samsung is disappointed with the court?s decision that denied our motion to stay. We believe today?s ruling will ultimately reduce the availability of superior products to consumers in the United States.

We will continue to pursue an appeal of the GALAXY Nexus preliminary injunction, which we filed on July 2 to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Meanwhile, we are also working closely with Google to resolve this matter, as the patent in question concerns Google?s unified search function.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 96


    Hopefully there will be some sort of penalty by the courts.


     


    Apple gets a patent, Google/Samsung ignore it, Apple has to spend $$$ in court to get an injunction and they come along with a "patch" to fix the issue as if nothing happened in the first place?

  • Reply 2 of 96
    markbyrnmarkbyrn Posts: 661member
    Gee, I can't wait to install that downgrade on my Galaxy Nexus.
  • Reply 3 of 96
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    I assume this work around isn't as good as the IP they are using from Apple or they'd have used it in the first place. I wonder how it will effect performance and usability once implemented.


    Hopefully there will be some sort of penalty by the courts.

    Apple gets a patent, Google/Samsung ignore it, Apple has to spend $$$ in court to get an injunction and they come along with a "patch" to fix the issue as if nothing happened in the first place?

    How did it go when HTC implemented a work around for their previous ban?
  • Reply 4 of 96
    hobbithobbit Posts: 532member
    That's one thing I hate about Google.

    They are all for openness and transparity. But by that they mean stealing everyone else's ideas conveniently ignoring that other people spent time and money to come up with those.

    And to add insult to injury Google just blatantly assumes they can get away with it. 'Let the people decide which OS is better'. What a mockery! Will 'the people' reimburse those whose ideas were stolen? Who pays for all the reaseach, testing and inventor's salaries?

    Thinking all they need is a software patch to get away with it...
    What an arrogant company.
  • Reply 5 of 96
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    hobbit wrote: »
    That's one thing I hate about Google.
    They are all for openness and transparency. But by that they mean stealing everyone else's ideas conveniently ignoring that other people spent time and money to come up with these.

    They don't seem to reveal their search algorithms. It's almost like Google is full of shit. ????
  • Reply 6 of 96
    mac.worldmac.world Posts: 340member
    hobbit wrote: »
    That's one thing I hate about Google.
    They are all for openness and transparity. But by that they mean stealing everyone else's ideas conveniently ignoring that other people spent time and money to come up with those.
    And to add insult to injury Google just blatantly assumes they can get away with it. 'Let the people decide which OS is better'. What a mockery! Will 'the people' reimburse those whose ideas were stolen? Who pays for all the reaseach, testing and inventor's salaries?
    Thinking all they need is a software patch to get away with it...
    What an arrogant company.

    Got two words for you: 'Notification Center'

    As in Apple assumes they can get away with stealing.

    And then we have the many features Apple 'stole' for iOS6 from Android like email 'priority inbox' or as Apple calls it 'VIP mail', or the "call you later" text response to incoming calls or Face detection api or custom vibrations or multiple keyboard layouts or in-app bluetooth, etc... But, since it is Apple stealing Android's ideas, it's okay, right?

    Don't be hypocritical.
  • Reply 7 of 96
    derekmorrderekmorr Posts: 237member
    solipsismx wrote: »
    I assume this work arounds aren't as good as IP they are using from Apple

    That's a very disingenuous way to phrase it. You make it sound like Google stole an implementation from Apple. Nothing of the sort happened. Apple's universal search patent (http://www.google.com/patents/US8086604) is overly broad and shouldn't have been issued. Read the patent if you haven't already. It's essentially a vague, 10,000-foot level description of searching multiple repositories and sorting the results. It's full of empty phrases like "each heuristic module corresponds to a respective area of search and employs a different, predetermined heuristic algorithm" and "a ranking module configured to rank each candidate item located by the plurality of heuristic modules." But it never specifies what those algorithms are or how they work. It's ridiculous that such hand-waving is patent-able at all.
  • Reply 8 of 96
    bighypebighype Posts: 148member


    Screw Google... they're just evil bastards.

  • Reply 9 of 96
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    derekmorr wrote: »
    That's a very disingenuous way to phrase it. You make it sound like Google stole an implementation from Apple. Nothing of the sort happened. Apple's universal search patent (http://www.google.com/patents/US8086604) is overly broad and shouldn't have been issued. Read the patent if you haven't already. It's essentially a vague, 10,000-foot level description of searching multiple repositories and sorting the results. It's full of empty phrases like "each heuristic module corresponds to a respective area of search and employs a different, predetermined heuristic algorithm" and "a ranking module configured to rank each candidate item located by the plurality of heuristic modules." But it never specifies what those algorithms are or how they work. It's ridiculous that such hand-waving is patent-able at all.

    That may very well be the case and I can see an argument for being against the patent but the fact is the patent was granted, it was held up in court and a ban has been issued thus requiring a change in the code for sales to resume. The comment you make about it being overly broad just supports my original point about a work around will affect the Nexus product even more.
  • Reply 10 of 96
    hobbithobbit Posts: 532member
    mac.world wrote: »
    Got two words for you: 'Notification Center'
    As in Apple assumes they can get away with stealing.
    And then we have the many features Apple 'stole' for iOS6 from Android like email 'priority inbox' or as Apple calls it 'VIP mail', or the "call you later" text response to incoming calls or Face detection api or custom vibrations or multiple keyboard layouts or in-app bluetooth, etc... But, since it is Apple stealing Android's ideas, it's okay, right?
    Don't be hypocritical.

    What in my post exactly gave you the idea that I condone stealing by Apple?
    Or are you trying to justify Google's wrongs by other wrongs?
    An eye for an eye? Like in socity codices from 5,000 years ago? Is that how far we progressed?!?


    Cannot comment on notification center, but email priorities and groupimg by them is an old hat, so are text replies to incoming calls, as well as custom vibration alarms. Mobile phones even before the smart phome era could do that already. Those are likely just more examples of ideas Google 'borrowed' from others.
  • Reply 11 of 96
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,192member


    Google could just as well call it version 4.2 "Melted Ice Cream Sandwich".


     


    And good luck updating to the next major release with that.

  • Reply 12 of 96
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,192member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post





    They don't seem to reveal their search algorithms. It's almost like Google is full of shit. ????


    Silly, a company can't be full of shit, but Vic Gundotra is.

  • Reply 13 of 96
    maccherrymaccherry Posts: 924member


    Dude, who cares about this Galaxy whatever, The new iPhone is dropping in a few months. 


    Hell, I still have my iPhone 4 from 2 years ago. It is so darn good it will be, IMHO, hard to beat.


    It does everything!

  • Reply 14 of 96
    monstrositymonstrosity Posts: 2,234member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Mac.World View Post





    Got two words for you: 'Notification Center'

    As in Apple assumes they can get away with stealing.

    And then we have the many features Apple 'stole' for iOS6 from Android like email 'priority inbox' or as Apple calls it 'VIP mail', or the "call you later" text response to incoming calls or Face detection api or custom vibrations or multiple keyboard layouts or in-app bluetooth, etc... But, since it is Apple stealing Android's ideas, it's okay, right?

    Don't be hypocritical.


     


    The difference is, there is a high chance that Apple had already researched and planned some, if not all those features that you suggest Apple "stole", because it is in Apples culture to innovate behind the scenes. Whereas Google on the other hand… well, their culture is to steal, their whole business model and history is built on stolen IP.


    I'm not saying Apple are saints, but come on, let's not pretend that both parties are equal.

  • Reply 15 of 96
    ljocampoljocampo Posts: 657member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Mac.World View Post





    Got two words for you: 'Notification Center'

    As in Apple assumes they can get away with stealing.

    And then we have the many features Apple 'stole' for iOS6 from Android like email 'priority inbox' or as Apple calls it 'VIP mail', or the "call you later" text response to incoming calls or Face detection api or custom vibrations or multiple keyboard layouts or in-app bluetooth, etc... But, since it is Apple stealing Android's ideas, it's okay, right?

    Don't be hypocritical.


     


    Go away troll

  • Reply 16 of 96
    povilaspovilas Posts: 473member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Mac.World View Post





    Got two words for you: 'Notification Center'

    As in Apple assumes they can get away with stealing.

    And then we have the many features Apple 'stole' for iOS6 from Android like email 'priority inbox' or as Apple calls it 'VIP mail', or the "call you later" text response to incoming calls or Face detection api or custom vibrations or multiple keyboard layouts or in-app bluetooth, etc... But, since it is Apple stealing Android's ideas, it's okay, right?

    Don't be hypocritical.


     


    And when you look at S Voice and Siri what conclusions can you draw from that picture?

  • Reply 17 of 96
    darkpawdarkpaw Posts: 212member


    That video looks an awful lot like Google stole from TRON. Disney should sue.

  • Reply 18 of 96
    john f.john f. Posts: 111member


    Oh, so there are other ways of implementing things? They just didn't want to do it earlier because Android is freeeeee! Everything implemented in Android is open and freeeeeee! Come everybody, repeat, Android is freeeeee! Meanwhile, Microsoft gets more money from their patents used in Android than Google gets from their own "free" operating system. As long as you keep repeating it's open and free, no patents will ever be violated, right? It's free! It's open! Like their WebM codec. It's royalty free! But when it does turn out it infringes on patents, then companies using it are on their own.

  • Reply 19 of 96
    mac.worldmac.world Posts: 340member
    povilas wrote: »
    And when you look at S Voice and Siri what conclusions can you draw from that picture?
    I see two third party apps still in Beta testing. Neither was invented or patented by Apple or Google. Vlingo is the owner from Android, btw.

    This is pointless though. The iFaithful will refuse to believe amy evidence of Apple wrongdoing, even if it is the exact same thing they are cheering for, because it is against Samsung or Google or HTC, hypocrits, the lot of ya. It's pathetically sad.
  • Reply 20 of 96
    monstrositymonstrosity Posts: 2,234member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Mac.World View Post





    ... hypocrits, the lot of ya. It's pathetically sad.


    Why hang out here if you think we are all "pathetically sad"?

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