How To Avoid Infringing On Apple's Patents

bdking writes "In a public legal brief (PDF), Apple offers numerous design alternatives that Samsung could have used for its smartphones and tablets to avoid infringing on Apple's patents. Basically, as long as competitors' smartphones and tablets bear no resemblance to smartphones and tablets, everything's cool."

Comments

Re:That's right, Apple has a monopoly on smart

[mwvdlee]

Even dumb phones have rectangular screens, and according to Apple those are not allowed.

Re:ok so...

[gnasher719]

You have to copy pretty much everything to get into trouble. And that Samsung did. They could have used a rectangular case with rounded corners, a dark black bezel with two silver or tastefully grey lines running through the bezel and put the speakers on the side - they would have been fine.

People should really take time to read this disposition. Firstly, the advice that Apple gives how to make a design that is not covered by Apple's design patent is in each case accompanied by exhibits - so there are in each case one or several actual products that do exactly what Apple asks Samsung to do.

Second, Samsung seems to have come up with a list of items that they claim are prior art. And the expert witness then says "this is not prior art because it is different in this respect. This is not prior art because it is different in that respect. etc. etc.". In other words, each of the designs that Samsung claimed as prior art wouldn't be infringing on Apple's design patent because they are different.

To be in trouble, a design must match Apple's design patent in every single aspect. One difference, and Samsung would have been safe.

Re:ok so...

[khipu]

The LG Prada was announced and described about a month before the first iPhone. It has all the design elements that Apple is claiming. In fact, LG K850 still looks like a very nice and elegant phone next to the iPhone 4S.

Re:That's right, Apple has a monopoly on smart

[Canazza]

So, not Acer: http://blog.dialaphone.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/acer-tablet1.jpg
or Motorola: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Technology/Pix/pictures/2011/4/27/1303887422785/Motorola-Xoom-tablet-005.jpg
or the HP Touchpad: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41I6VtL6D%2BL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
or the Advent Vega: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advent_Vega
or the Sony Tablet S: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Sony_Tablet_S.jpg/300px-Sony_Tablet_S.jpg
or the Viewsonic G: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/ViewSonic_G_Tablet.JPG/220px-ViewSonic_G_Tablet.JPG

no, none of these look remotely like an iPad. Except the Xoom, cause Apple have tried to sue Motorola for them. The rest haven't been sued because they're not black, with rounded edges and a single button with a rectangular screen.

Re:That's right, Apple has a monopoly on smart

[Canazza]

what about that bit of the article that lists Apples complaints?

Hardware and software trade dress claims

        a rectangular product shape with all four corners uniformly rounded;
        the front surface of the product dominated by a screen surface with black borders;
        as to the iPhone and iPod touch products, substantial black borders above and below the screen having roughly equal width and narrower black borders on either side of the screen having roughly equal width;
        as to the iPad product, substantial black borders on all sides being roughly equal in width;
        a metallic surround framing the perimeter of the top surface;
        a display of a grid of colorful square icons with uniformly rounded corners; and
        a bottom row of square icons (the "Springboard") set off from the other icons and that do not change as the other pages of the user interface are viewed.

Packaging trade dress claims

        a rectangular box with minimal metallic silver lettering and a large front-viewpicture of the product prominently on the top surface of the box;
        a two-piece box wherein the bottom piece is completely nested in the top piece; and
        use of a tray that cradles products to make them immediately visible upon opening the box.

Looks to me like it's mostly LOLRectangle followed by a few LOLSquareIcons and LOLDesktop