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Australian Court Blocks Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tablet
jimboh2k writes "Apple has succeeded in blocking the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Australia until a final hearing can be heard in the case down under. The judgment on Thursday could effectively kill chances of the tablet ever launching properly in Australia after Samsung claimed further delays to the product would threaten hopes of gaining traction."
This could potentially work against Apple if Samsung go after the iPhone 4S on Oz. Precedent has been set, and it would be quite difficult for Apple to argue that an injunction shouldn't block the iPhone4S if Samsung decide to assert their hardware patents.
This judgement delivered by JudgeBuddy for iPad. This is ridiculous. Singling out 5-10 patents which Apple Claims Samsung's infringing on, which are guaranteed to be covered by "prior art" with the hope of delaying a rival product until it's no longer saleable. Antitrust much?
I'll buy one of these now instead of an iPad and maybe you should too.
With all these vendors tripping over each others patents it will likely result in a bunch of cross licensing.
Do anything, anywhere, anytime.
All of these patent laws and copyright laws - all they do is promote innovation and competition, don't they?
You can't handle the truth.
What ? Apple is still around ?
In a few years it will follow Yahoo down the drain.
I think you stretch the analogy too far
The judgement is based on broad patents that would be violated by any Android touchscreen based phone or tablet in Australia This goes way beyond the German ruling as it is not based on a design patent. Apple can now ask for a ban on any android device in Australia and it will most likely be granted. You can't blame Samsung for asserting FRAND patents, this ruling has equal anti trust/monopoly implications as it grants Apple a monopoly on tablet devices in Australia and could be used to do the same with smartphones. Apple have refused to license these patents. Software patents are now hurting consumers directly, beyond the tax we have been paying on devices that goes to play patent trolls and patent lawyers e.g. the $5-10 on every android device that goes to Microsoft. Now they are being used to kill consumer choice.
This behaviour is blatant anti-competitor at the cost of consumer choice. Either way we pay their litigation tax.
Yes. Don't you see them competing fiercely in court?
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
To hell with Apple and their litigious business practices. Ritchie contributed more to computing than Jobs ever did yet his passing apparently doesn't even warrant a mention on /.
According to your link the issue is with multitouch. My LG android phone doesn't have that so it should be safe. My HP touchpad does and I expect HP would have been in trouble over that if they hadn't bailed from the market.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
I find this behavior distasteful, and it further alienates me from Apple culture and technologies. Cut this nonsense out and let Samsung sell its meager 200,000 tablets.
See: http://slashdot.org/recent/
Specifically:
* http://slashdot.org/submission/1816404/dennis-ritchie-father-of-c-and-unix-reported-dead
* http://slashdot.org/submission/1816390/dennis-ritchie-co-creator-of-unix-and-c-has-died
It is in the firehose currently. Twice. These posts are off topic in this regard. I don't know why it hasn't been submitted to the front page yet if he is as influential as all of you commentors are saying. I never heard of him before today. However it is off topic. Give the editors a chance to post it. They were hours behind on Steve Jobs as well. The /. system is a reader's digest summary, not the place you go if you want breaking news (unfortunately).
by Anonymous Coward: I, for one, welcome the shift from car analogies to pizza analogies. um.. overlords?
I think you stretch the analogy too far
Oh no. You just used the words "analogy" and "stretch" in a reply to a comment about homosexuals. It suffices to say that the analogy will soon be stretched further. You have doomed us all.
I think he's just trying to shoehorn in his homophobia to be honest.
Small detail... this has nothing to do with Android. Apple has a beef with the design of the physical phone, the packaging, the cabling AND Samsungs skin for Android. In this suit at least, they got no complaint against Android itself.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
This company needs to be knocked off their perch. ESPECIALLY as Australian people have a penchant for strongly following the rules of tall poppy syndrome.
Anecdotal comment: Out of the 50 staff I work with in my team in the office, we have had the following phone purchases in the past 12 months
1x iphone 4
5x galaxy S2
1x galaxy 1 series
3x HTC Android phones
2x Acer Android phones (surprisingly good, Liquid Metal phone - 120$ AUD outright!)
1xAsus Transformer
0xipads
Also of note, 2 of those Android purchases were directly moving FROM iphones to Android. If I increase that threshold to 18 months*, I can add another iphone 4.
The sentiment in the office and amongst all the nerds I know except 2 die hards is that "Apple is evil" and generally to be avoided. It's basically 'not cool' to own an iphone at the moment, at least with the people I speak with. (If you can't tell, I'm one of the converts)
I have in the past 12 months though, recommended an iphone for someone surprisingly. A girl who had an iphone 3gs she dropped it and shattered it, she's not tech savvy and already has an iphone with itunes backup, it would be silly to push my 'Android agenda' on the girl when clearly an iphone would suit here.
Flame comment begin: and to be genuinely honest, I see the iphone as the 'dumbest' of the smartphones, it's perfect for people like her because it's like the old Nokia 6110 of smartphones, simple and basic. You can't do much but you can't break much either. (Yes I genuinely believe that and I owned 3 of the things)
* and the guy who got his iphone 18 months ago is envious of everyones Galaxy S2, he's switching to Android at the end of his 24 month contract.
Agreed, it is off topic and this is not the place for breaking news. Some news, however, is orders of magnitude bigger than others. I think the news of Denis Ritchie passing is big enough that it warrants an intrusion into an unrelated thread. This is a chapter in the history of computer technology coming to a close, and warrants a breaking of the rules IMHO. Your opinion may differ.
These patents are obviously doing harm. I am not a lawyer, but is it possible to bring the patent office to court for the damage it is doing to society?
Well, that's an admission. Since Ritchie was one of the pioneers of what has evolved to be the technology that powers most servers and almost all mobile devices, you could argue that he is of much more relevance to this article than your post. After all, it is about two companies fighting over technologies for which he was one of the major founders.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
The patent system is clearly broken and doesn't offer the clients of the patent system ( the public ( we create and fund this system for our benefit ) ) any benefit. Non of this stuff is innovative. "rounded corners' or Clicking things twice http://100777.com/node/820 isn't helping the people who keep this system up.
Edward Jenner "Jenner did not patent his discovery as it would have made the vaccination more expensive and out of the reach of many" and many others should be looked as heroes of mankind and not Steve Jobs.
...and yet the news of Dennis Ritchie passing away goes largely unnoticed & uncared for by /.
But carry on with your wonderful fun, you witty scamp.
With Bell's Ken Thompson, Ritchie helped develop Unix,,, and released the first edition of the operating system in 1971.
Two years later Ritchie came up with the C language, building on B from engineers at Bell.
So what happened to the D and F language... this is 2011
See: http://slashdot.org/recent/
Specifically:
* http://slashdot.org/submission/1816404/dennis-ritchie-father-of-c-and-unix-reported-dead
* http://slashdot.org/submission/1816390/dennis-ritchie-co-creator-of-unix-and-c-has-died
It is in the firehose currently. Twice. These posts are off topic in this regard. I don't know why it hasn't been submitted to the front page yet if he is as influential as all of you commentors are saying. I never heard of him before today. However it is off topic. Give the editors a chance to post it. They were hours behind on Steve Jobs as well. The /. system is a reader's digest summary, not the place you go if you want breaking news (unfortunately).
WTF?!?!?!
Turn in your geek card.
The delay is a good thing. Since we are all already aware of what has happened, this delay will give foolish people lots of time to post their faux-sincere "condolences" at shitholes like Hacker News, reddit and Google+. There'll be many thousands of useless one-line "My condolences to his family" and "RIP dmr" comments.
By the time Slashdot gets around to posting this news, the majority will hopefully have that crap out of their system, and we can remember him and the impact he made with useful, insightful, detailed comments, rather than single-line platitudes.
Make the lawyers fight it out in a cage filled with snakes, horny kangaroos, and drop bears. Last man/woman stand wins. It's the Aussie way.
(don't get all ruffled Aussies, it's just a joke)
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Sorry I'm with Apple on this one, Samsung and the other Korean chaebol build market share by leveraging their outsized influence with the Korean govt. to basically exclude competitors from the Korean market. Despite a huge popularity of Apple products here, they are often prevented from launching for a year or more due to shady practices on Samsung/LGs part. Their telecoms, electronics companies, and even entertainment industry have zero respect for IP or copyright law, and it shows in how the relentlessly rip off ideas from other companies. Then they are surprised when their attempts to compete in international markets aren't well received or, in this case, are exposed as shameless ripoffs and smacked down by international patent law. Yeah, they make some good TVs and other electronics, but their ability to innovate is severely restricted (mostly by their stifling corporate culture and domestic cronyism) and that shows more and more the bigger they get.
Apple is getting all of these PRELIMINARY injunctions; which potentially hurt Samsung big-time in the long run. If Samsung ends up winning the actual court battle, does Apple have to compensate them somehow?
Even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contribution to popular culture.
All your patents are belong to us.
Multitouch long predates Apple's patents, which amount to "we put multitouch on a flat screen device," as if that's not an obvious thing to do at the point where the cost/maturity make it economic/practical.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
It's just what US business does and some other places too - copy whatever they see working. One thing that really drove that home from finally getting around to watching the movie "Cloverfield" tonight I understood where those dozens of productions with pointless shaky camerawork came from. It worked in one situation so there were dozens of copies. Most businesses are at heart extremely conservative so they'll gladly rip off what somebody else has done if they can get away with it.
It's not a Korean problem at all. That's just blaming the "other" or cheering for the home team and pretending it is so gets nothing done apart from annoying people of the nationality you are insulting.
Oh, that's right, Apple's looknfeel patents are FAR more important and worth FAR more money and FAR more central to the operation of a FRIGGING MOBILE PHONE than merely "how to make photons wiggle" of the CDMA patents...
As to point 2, unopened software is still licensed and paid for and has been proven in court to be non-transferrable even if your company is being bought up. Therefore you'll have to prove that Apple bought the license with rights to make their own mobile phone through their suppliers. But case law, at the moment, says that there is no automatic transferal of licensing in a purchase.
This is not big guy vs. little guy but a war of giants. The response from Samsung so far is really quite weak - mostly FRAND committed patents and I don't see that they should be able to get injunctions over these.
To those saying Apple is acting in an anti-trust way. Possibly it could be seen as anticompetitive but that is what the law says you can do with patents and what they are for. IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT FIGHT FOR A CHANGE IN THE LAW.
To those saying that most of the patents are obvious/maths/not novel or inventive that is a problem of the politics/law. IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT FIGHT FOR A CHANGE IN THE LAW.
It may be that the only way to get the law to change is to allow all out war plus mass suing by Lodsys and other trolls to really show the current law is as disastrous as we know it is.
No, John. You are the Big Brother.
Blair Witch was the first (mainstream) film that kicked off that horrid form of cinematography, long before Cloverfield (and it has a lot to answer for because of that).
These childish patent wars have got to stop.
It sickens me that companies like Apple and Samsung are flinging patents around, while great men like Dennis Ritchie who contributed so much more to the world never achieved anywhere near the riches of these technology leeches.
What ever happened to competing on the merits of your product instead of the size of your legal team?
Want to fix the patent system? Deny the rights of corporations to hold patents. Only the actual inventor or creator, a real flesh and blood human being, should be entitled to a patent.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Much as I dislike Florian Muller, and his anti Google shill rants posing as 'news', he says the same thing: http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/10/steve-jobs-patent-enables-apple-to-shut.html
It's apreliminary ruling so the judge didn't get to see much of the prior art.
Check this, for example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcKqyn-gUbY (2 years before the multitouch patent filling date, which was 2008).
OK, they have a hardware based patent from 2004, but there were multitouch capable displays before that AFAIK, even if not capacitive.
Based on that, I give Apple a slim chance to be upholded in the final ruling. They know that but are trying to make as much damage as possible and scare Android manufacturers to death before Google does to them what MS did some 20 years ago. Money is not important - they will pay damages, they have cash. At the moment they are trying to be as disruptive as they can, either themselves or through Oracle (MS is using the situation to cash-in on Android, hoping that Apple/Oracle will get it banned from markets).
It sickens me that companies like Apple and Samsung are flinging patents around
Do not blame Samsung. This is 100% Apple's fault. Samsung is doing nothing more than trying to defend itself against an evil, abusive, monopolist. If somebody got mugged in an ally, would you critize that person for trying to fight back?
Government shouldn't be allowed in business, saying that it is ran by 'free market capitalist' is obviously skewing the reality, which is that government is ran by those, who do not want free market capitalism (for themselves at least), they want to create and maintain a monopoly for themselves, captivating the audience (not customers - prisoners of the system), and when they get in trouble because they are not challenged by any competition in any way, they expect a government bail out.
You can't handle the truth.
As this site says blatant copying: you decide.
http://www.LinuxMedNews.com Revolutionizing Medical Education and Practice.
Like assassinations, what comes around goes around.
Well there's a bigger picture, here. Apple is picking a few fights with Samsung in response to how Samsung is playing their cards in other markets. I'm a teacher working in South Korea, and it shouldn't come as much of a surprise at how dirty Samsung is stealing the rug out from under Apple, here, when the market WANTS Apple - both foreign and local. Samsung is a monster conglomerate that does pretty much everything... but it's also no secret that they, too, are guilty of bending laws and borrowing ideas (and designs) to get the jump on launching their products ahead of other more quality and tested products. Galaxy S has nothing on the iphone (except a bigger screen, I guess). SII is strides beyond S1, so they're on the right track... but still have a ways to go. And yeah, I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder knowing how Samsung basically copied ideas to throw their phone on the market before Apple could get past the import laws reasonably, ruining Apple's commitment to the Korea (that's the way I see it. There isn't a single Apple store in this country, yet).
Free market capitalist is not given any opportunities to run government or to buy government but also he is by definition not ruled by government.
Free market is by definition free of government intervention.
Once there is government intervention, then BY DEFINITION there is NO free market capitalism anymore. So at any moment that government starts regulating businesses, they stop being free market oriented businesses, their obvious response is to compete not by creating a better product at a lower price, but instead by compete by buying power.
You can't handle the truth.
"Homicide: Life on the Streets" pioneered shakycam long before Blair Witch. Except it was actually good.
I'm no lawyer, but if I worked for Apple this would piss me off too: TUAW
Steve Jobs is gone. I suspect that most of this is what we will see out of Tim Cook. Even when Jobs was here and all this started, I bet Tim was actually calling the shots and defacto CEO just to make sure that the change of leadership which everybody knew was coming would work. At least that was my theory way before Steve actually stepped down and not just some bit of Jobs worship. When hearing about the iPhone and iPad, it was always Tim Cook talking about getting the deals in Asia and cornering all the production on the needed parts so competition couldn't build an identical one even if they wanted to.
Ah I see, you're using the theoretical definition of free market capitalist (the same type of theory as "communism in theory works, it was just never implemented right!")
Sure, in theory, free market capitalists have no opportunities to affect government (and are not controlled by government)
In reality, however, they do, because government, as powerful as it may be, is not some deity that exists in and of itself: it needs to get its power somewhere (i.e somebody has to build government its guns). Who's gonna make them those guns? Whoever does so can influence and control government. So who's the people producing things of value? Yup, free market capitalists.
Whether or not free market by "definition" cease to exist when government intervenes is just a matter of semantics. We can call them "former" free market capitalists if you want. It's still the same people, who have decided to abandon free market capitalism for personal gain - the same reason they do anything else under free market capitalism.
As I said - free market is only free when it is free of government intervention. Once it is no longer free of government intervention, it is automatically no longer a free market, it is a distorted market, which sends out the wrong signals, which are not to compete based on user expectations and product quality/price, etc., but to use the distorting power that can be bought (and if a politician has power, then he is for sale, unless he is an ideological politician, which is probably one in 100,000).
It's not a matter of semantics, it IS the definition, that a free market is only free of government intervention. It's not free of anything else.
What do you THINK the word 'free' means in this context? Ponies?
You can't handle the truth.
This really is quite sad, we live in a free market and companies should be free to release products that challenge one another. The majority of Apples argument is that the Gal Tab is too good and if Samsung can release it Samsung will sell more than Apple the iPad. Well boo hoo, that's how business works. I'm lucky enough to have gotten a Gal Tab while Kogan were selling them in Oz and I can honestly say that it looks and operates nothing like the iPad and it rocks in comparison. There are plenty of other iPad rivals out there that look and operate much closer to the iPad than the Gal Tab, but put simply Apple went after the rival they knew would hurt them and slugged them with a pointless court case. If everyone started doing this we'd be in a very boring society indeed. Apples argument is like Toyota complaining that Nissan sell a 4WD therefore Toyota wont sell as many units and that's not fair, Nissan shouldn't be able to sell a 4WD. In the end Apple will lose because Samsung are going to come after them hard and Apple have already admitted that if it turns bad with Samsung Apple will have to put inferior components in all their devices. With crappy screens and componentry will Apple really have a better product? Take them down Samsung, Apple are becoming the new Microsoft and need to be taken down a peg or 50.
Thanks for agreeing. See, by arguing over the "definition", you are arguing over the meaning, and that is *by definition*, semantics (the study of meaning)
It doesn't matter either way though , since I never contended with the "definition" of free market as anything else.
See, I said "free market capitalists", not "free market".
You're arguing over what to call the market, when that is not the subject. I can rephrase it to "distorted market" capitalists, and I'll still be talking about the same thing.
A business within free market competes with other businesses for the customers based on product quality/price.
A business within a non-free market can obviously compete with other businesses based on buying politicians, this is absolutely normal and to be expected (and I would do exactly that, presented an opportunity).
As I always contend - there is only one thing that is reliable, it's human greed. This is a good thing, not a bad thing.
Human greed can be a positive, constructive thing, when it's bound by the free market limitations of what competition is.
Human greed can be totally devastating, if it is allowed to get various powers that have nothing to do with free market, but instead are types of powers that governments have over individuals. That's why we want free market - market free of government intervention, so that the greed would be used for constructive, productive, wealth creating things and not for destructive, anti-competitive, power-buying activities that lead to market distortion and economy destruction.
I love the fact that people greedy - they build things for me and they want me to buy those things and they compete with each other based on quality and price.
I hate politicians and I hate all governments. Governments in my eyes are ALWAYS wrong. There is NO good that comes from government. Nothing good comes from government. Anything and everything that governments do is always bad.
That's because they also are full of people who are greedy, but individuals are captive audience, not customers but are prisoners of that system and they don't have to provide me with anything I would want to buy at prices I would be willing to pay.
Capice?
You can't handle the truth.
/. moderation is out of control. Unpopular opinion, including anything positive about Apple, MS, Facebook. etc... get moderated as flamebait or troll, even if it is clearly not. Just because you don't agree with someone, doesn't mean they should be moderated as flamebait. Now, mark me off-topic, because that would be appropriate in this case.