Apple filed a lawsuit that basically says Samsung ripped off the iPhone and iPad designs and used them in their galaxy phones and tablets.
According to Apple spokesman Steve Dowling; “It’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging. This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”
Apparently Apple owns the right to seven patents that are related to the way tablets react to certain gestures, like pinch to zoom, selecting and scrolling. As well as three patents on design including the flat black face the company uses on their devices.
Apple is also going after Samsung for copying their packaging and some of their icons.
I personally think that Apple is going a little nuts here, it seems like they’re scared of the recent rise of Android and they’re trying to take a if you cant beat ‘em sue ‘em approach through the hardware companies, since each puts it’s own spin on Google’s open source OS.
I understand and agree with protecting your intellectual property to some degree, if someone steals code you were expecting to make money on and then goes on and profits off it on their own, costing you money and putting you out of business that deserves a lawsuit in my opinion. Apple should be confident enough in their products to not have to go this route, there’s always going to be similarities in the way people interact with hardware and people will always copy the best. To me it seems like at worst Samsung is copying the ‘style’ and not outright stealing anything from Apple. I don’t think the similarities between and iPad 2 and a Galaxy tab are going to deter anyone from buying either, no one is going to look at the Galaxy tab and think ‘Gee I want this, it’s just like an iPad’ unless they’ve never used an iPad. Likewise I don’t think anyone looking for a small 7’ tab is going to want the 10.5’ iPad 2.
Lawsuits like this hurt competition, if Apple is such an amazing company (which in some ways they are) then they shouldn’t fear copycats. Apple should know that what they have waiting in the wings will blow all the competition out of the water, common sense would tell you that if you are the company everyone is copying than you have a huge advantage. You will always be the first to market which is the biggest advantage you could possibly ask for.
Even if Samsung is copying the iPad and iPhone in it’s Galaxy devices they’re still way underpowered comparatively, Samsung even had to tell a few little ‘white lies’ in order to drum up interest in their Galaxy Tablet.
Besides going after Samsung, Apple is also trying to go after HTC as well, for pretty much the same thing.
- By: syeed@techsual.com
- Source: Bloomberg
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