Samsung sues Apple in Korea over iOS Notification Center
Samsung has reportedly launched a new lawsuit against Apple's implementation of the iOS Notification Center, saying that the feature infringes on an active patent.
Not much is known about the suit, which was reported by Korean news site iNews24 and subsequently picked up by the business-to-business portfolio resource BrightWire on Thursday, but FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller believes the IP in question is not a standard-essential patent assertion like many of the others currently being heard in courts around the world.
It is unclear if Samsung is leveraging a patent it owns or an enhancement of an existing patent that was issued prior to the debut of Apple's solution. Mueller notes, however, that Google recently received a U.S. patent for a similar feature, most likely the same property responsible for Android's Status Bar and other assets. Apple launched Notification Center with iOS 5 in 2011, some time after Google's notification system was already shipping with Android handsets.
Apple's Notification Center allows quick access to email, push notifications, messages, weather and other assets from a pull-down screen that can be accessed from anywhere in iOS. Most recently, Notification Center gained Facebook integration with iOS 6 and made its way to the Mac with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.
Not much is known about the suit, which was reported by Korean news site iNews24 and subsequently picked up by the business-to-business portfolio resource BrightWire on Thursday, but FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller believes the IP in question is not a standard-essential patent assertion like many of the others currently being heard in courts around the world.
It is unclear if Samsung is leveraging a patent it owns or an enhancement of an existing patent that was issued prior to the debut of Apple's solution. Mueller notes, however, that Google recently received a U.S. patent for a similar feature, most likely the same property responsible for Android's Status Bar and other assets. Apple launched Notification Center with iOS 5 in 2011, some time after Google's notification system was already shipping with Android handsets.
Apple's Notification Center allows quick access to email, push notifications, messages, weather and other assets from a pull-down screen that can be accessed from anywhere in iOS. Most recently, Notification Center gained Facebook integration with iOS 6 and made its way to the Mac with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.
Comments
In celebration, everybody go out to your nearest Samsung store and smash a television!
Just kidding...
Google's patent specifies an icon indicating the presence of a notification in a bar across the top of the screen.
Apple's method doesn't use this, at all, it's more based on the pull down menus from Lisa from the early eighties.
I guess we'll just have to wait for more details of this Samsung held patent.
I wonder if it could be used as prior art to request a review of Google's recently awarded notification patent for Android, it all depends on which one was filed first.
Say it ain't so!! How are the Fandroids going to spin this story?
Samsung. You sued me so we are gonna sue you every chance we get. No matter what.
Apple. F#@% you. Bring it on ass wipes.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GTR
In celebration, everybody go out to your nearest Samsung store and smash a television!
Just kidding...
Just don't buy one, they'll get the hint eventually.........
I love android and yeah I am confused. I would say apples Notification center is poor copy of Google's android notification but I would be wrong. It is a poor copy of Samsung's notification. /s
Quote:
Originally Posted by drblank
Just don't buy one, they'll get the hint eventually.........
Okay, let's confirm that for everybody:
Kick in a TV but don't buy it.
Also, don't buy a TV then kick it in.
That would be bad. Worse than purchasing from Samsung in the first place.
Yeah, that scenario is actually possible.
By the way, the other day I wandered into the Samsung Sydney store (just down the road from the Apple store - nice try, Samsung).
Does anybody have any hints on how to wash the stink out?
I don't quite get this - isn't Android owned by Google? Therefore if the notification centre first appeared in Android (I think most of us would concede it did) then isn't Google's fight not Samsung?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mad Mac Man
I don't quite get this - isn't Android owned by Google? Therefore if the notification centre first appeared in Android (I think most of us would concede it did) then isn't Google's fight not Samsung?
Jailbroken iPhones.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mad Mac Man
I don't quite get this - isn't Android owned by Google? Therefore if the notification centre first appeared in Android (I think most of us would concede it did) then isn't Google's fight not Samsung?
It's not even clear that the IP claims concern the notification bar per se. Give it another day or so and I'm sure more details will come out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mad Mac Man
I don't quite get this - isn't Android owned by Google? Therefore if the notification centre first appeared in Android (I think most of us would concede it did) then isn't Google's fight not Samsung?
Google owns a patent on the notification center. Samsung also holds a patent on how they implemented it on their phones. Like most innovations these days, everybody adds a minor twist and tries to use that minor twist to block others from using the whole technology. The current system encourages micropatented nifty but relatively underwhelming things. Mobile patents seem to be among the worst since a huge number of the patents are things that have been done for years- but people are patenting that same functionality with the innovation being that it is now 'on a mobile device'
Google has not chosen to sue Apple using its patent. Just because you have a patent doesn't mean you have to sue everyone. They may choose to sue Apple at a later date (and may even be encouraged to do so if Samsung wins, or it may encourage Apple to settle out of court with Google)
Samsung has chosen to sue Apple using its patent. This particular case is about Samsung vs Apple.
The courts and lawyers should just save a lot of time and money and use my verdict.
Verdict:
Notifications were a highly innovative and extremely useful addition to mobile devices. No mobile device (not even the iPhone) could even really be considered modern without it. Google came up with it, Samsung implemented it, and Apple saw its benefit. Apple copied it fairly blatantly, with barely even a minor cosmetic difference.
Apple: Guilty of infringing on Samsungs patent.
Samsungs patent (and Googles if they choose to 'expose' it to the courts): Useful. Innovative. Obvious. Fairly trivial. Invalid.
Damages: 0
If the courts keep doing this consistently to both sides, they will learn that paying a lot of money for lawyers to argue with each other isn't panning out and patenting trivial things isn't going to get you a billion dollars nor gain an injunction to prevent any competition in the market.
The 'bar' for what constitutes a patent needs to be set far closer to an invention than an innovation:
You come to the patent office with something more akin to 'electricity' Yep. That's a patent. FRAND only.
You come to the patent office with:
Cut and paste has been on desktops for years via highlighting and dragging with a mouse. My 'amazing' invention is you do the same thing on a touchscreen, but now you're using your finger! Other companies can still compete if I choose not to license my patent, they'll just have to have their users carry around a mouse and connect it to their cell phones (*snicker*). No patent for you.
Tomato juice should wash that stink right off, oh and if you kick in a TV you just bought it lol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sflocal
Fandroids all over the world are spinning their heads. After all that time of accusing Apple of stealing the Notification Center from Android, now Samsung has some kind of patent on it when N.C. was Google's "Idea"?
Say it ain't so!! How are the Fandroids going to spin this story?
This might relate to Samsung's Bada OS, which also had a drop down notification bar, and several other features, prior to them appearing in iOS. As an example:
Don't they lose money on every set sold? But if one is broken they can probably have their insurance cover it so the best way to screw Samsung is to buy a TV from them?
Then you're stuck with a Samsung TV.
In all fairness, they aren't terrible. They're better than house-brand TVs, but I'm annoyed with mine.
I like Samsung's TVs. I've recommended several this year. What I don't care for is their SmartTV SW, but I don't care for anyone's setup. If you can get the features you want without getting a SmartTV I say that is the best way to go, but that seems pretty tough to do these days. I also the quality of the phones and notebooks they make compared to other vendors in the same price categories.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
Don't they lose money on every set sold? But if one is broken they can probably have their insurance cover it so the best way to screw Samsung is to buy a TV from them?
Where did you find that? Does it just apply to cheaper models? It wouldn't make sense to stay in such a market indefinitely. If you look at NVidia, they make very little on the sale of $100 graphics cards, yet the volume sold helps overcome the fabrication costs of their chips.
I've not been sold on the smart TV product just yet, so that's not a problem for me. Hopefully I can pretend the feature isn't there or turn that off.
I can't adjust the black level of my Samsung to where I think it should be without crushing blacks, "black" ends up being a lighter gray than I think it should be. I wish I had spent the little more on a Panasonic, the blacks would be better and the controls would probably be better too. One saving grace is Samsung does include a zoom mode that turns off overscan, which is ideal for computer use.
You should've went with a plasma. The picture on a LED look "fake" and overexposed, a plasma is the closest thing to the picture on a CRT.