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Samsung countersues Apple over iPhone, iPad
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John Molloy
- [ Ignore ]
Reuters have shed some light on Samsung’s counter suit:
(Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co has filed patent lawsuits against Apple over the U.S. firm’s iPhone and iPad in a tit-for-tat case after Apple claimed Samsung’s smartphones and tablets “slavishly” copied its products.
Apple filed a lawsuit last Friday alleging Samsung violated patents and trademarks of its iPhone and iPad, as the popular gadgets are being threatened by the fast rise of rival devices based on Google’s free Android operating system.
The legal battle between Apple and Samsung could jeopardize business ties between the two technology companies, as the Cupertino, California-based company depends heavily on Samsung for components such as chips and LCD displays.
Operating systems have emerged as the key battlefield for dominance of the world’s smartphone market.
Android became the most popular smartphone software in the United States in the three months ending in February, ahead of Apple and Research in Motion, according to a recent survey by research firm comScore.
Samsung is one of the fastest growing smartphone makers on the back of the Android boom and has emerged as Apple’s strongest competitor in the tablet market, with models in three sizes.
COUNTER LAWSUITS
Samsung said in a statement Friday that Apple’s iPhone and iPad infringe Samsung’s 10 mobile technology patents and it called for Apple to stop infringing its technology and compensate the company.
Samsung said the suits, filed in South Korea, Japan and Germany, involved 10 alleged infringements of patents mainly involving power reduction during data transmission, 3G technology for reducing errors during data transmission, and wireless data communication technology.
“Samsung is responding actively to the legal action taken against us in order to protect our intellectual property and to ensure our continued innovation and growth in the mobile communications business,” the statement said.Global technology companies are locked in a web of litigation as they try to defend their shares of the booming tablet and smartphone market.
Strong sales of the iPhone and iPad translate into more revenue for Samsung. Apple was Samsung’s second-biggest client after Japan’s Sony Corp last year, bringing in around 6.2 trillion Korean won ($5.7 billion) of sales, and is widely expected to become Samsung’s top client this year.
The battle comes ahead of Samsung launching a new version of its successful Galaxy S smartphone next week in Korea, a key product for the world’s No.2 handset maker to meet its target of 60 million units of smartphone sales this year.
Shares in Samsung, Asia’s biggest technology company with a market value of $140 billion, fell 2.5 percent by 0410 GMT after three consecutive sessions of gains, versus a 0.2 percent fall in the broader market.
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This looks vaguely familiar. I hope Apple gets some serious pricing concessions from Samsung as a result of this lawsuit.
Looks nothing like the iPhone…
...their button is rectangular and the iPhone’s button is round. Totally different.
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Patent laws mean ZIP if Apple doesn’t prevail on this blatant pirating. And it pisses me off that too many consumers don’t give a rip about such dishonorable business practices.
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...their button is rectangular and the iPhone’s button is round. Totally different.
Slow down there, Slim !
Those corners are rounded. I think Apple has a case.
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Patent laws mean ZIP if Apple doesn’t prevail on this blatant pirating. And it pisses me off that too many consumers don’t give a rip about such dishonorable business practices.
Prepare to be disappointed. It is impossible to play in the mobile device marketplace without infringing many, many patents, be they design patents or utility patents. So what multi-national companies do is spar among venues if they need to spar. Apple sues here over primarily design patents, Samsung sues there over primarily utility patents. Lawyers stay busy for a few years. Nothing significant comes of it either way. What Samsung “stole” (if anything) is nowhere near the equivalent of Apple supposedly catching Microsoft incorporating actual QuickTime code into Windows Media Player and getting $100M out of Bill Gates in a desperate move to save a dying company.
The innovative thing that Apple has brought to the table here is using the lawsuits against HTC and Samsung primarily for marketing purposes. The intention in launching the first strikes is to send a message that “Apple is innovative”. You’ll notice the tone of their PR is “these copycats copied us” while the tone of Samsung’s is about “protecting their IP”. Apple being copied by everyone is important to the Apple myth that played to its core customer base in the tough times. I’m not sure that it scales out to Joe Six Pack who is deciding between an iPhone and an Android phone. But that’s all Apple is doing here, playing to the myth. They know the lawsuits will go nowhere.
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gnasher729
- [ Ignore ]
What Samsung “stole” (if anything) is nowhere near the equivalent of Apple supposedly catching Microsoft incorporating actual QuickTime code into Windows Media Player and getting $100M out of Bill Gates in a desperate move to save a dying company.
Very misleading as expected. In the Microsoft/QuickTime affair Microsoft paid a company to develop software for them. That company had a good reputation because they wrote software for Apple before that. But instead of writing the software from scratch, that company copied what they had written for Apple. Microsoft was of course 100% liable for this, but I haven’t seen evidence that Microsoft did anything intentionally wrong there. And they could have got the software they wanted completely legally and at a much lower price by hiring someone who was both competent and trustworthy. When Apple found out, they didn’t think “oh, we have been damaged in an awful way”, they thought “great, we caught Microsoft with their pants down”.
Samsung, on the other hand, is stealing something that they couldn’t get any other way. Let’s say Apple had not one iPhone design, but two. Both exactly equally good, but completely different. But since they didn’t want to produce two different designs, they picked design A and design B has never been seen by the public. If Samsung “stole” design B then Apple would probably not even have complained. What Samsung copied is directly and immediately damaging Apple. Apple will lose sales because people buy Samsung phones thinking they are getting an iPhone, and lose reputation when people see someone complaining about their Samsung phone and think they are complaining about an iPhone.
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@gnasher: You assume that there is an absolute property right in the designs. We’ll see. Patents aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on until they are litigated. Many design patents are found to be overly broad and many too narrow to cover their claimed invention. But regardless, it’s still simply sparring, with Apple adding a marketing mix. You too will be disappointed in the end.
As for all the stupid people buying Sammy phones thinking they’re getting iPhones. Get real. Those Sammy phones can do voice-activated navigation and read incoming texts, two features that can make driving much safer. Everyone knows iPhone are incapable of both tasks.
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The whole point of these different legal spats is to add an external cost to manufacturing smartphones using Android. Yes this current law suit is slightly different, but ultimately it boils down to Apple trying to create further costs on Samsung in the smartphone market and evaporate as much of the profits that Samsung may make from manufacturing these competing phones.
Simple business logic from Apple. When you’re generating over 50% of the profits in the smartphone space, there’s plenty of dough to chuck at lawyers to harass your competion. Primarily one of the reasons why Apple is in such a great position competitively…
