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German Appeals Court Confirms Galaxy Tab 10.1 Ban
New submitter Killer Panda sends word that a German Appeals Court has upheld the injunction prohibiting sales of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany. Apple convinced lower courts to issue and uphold the injunction last year by making the case that Samsung's devices "slavishly" copied the iPhone and iPad. "Samsung, which is Apple's supplier as well as a competitor, has been trying to have the German decision overturned while also seeking other means to fight Apple. It redesigned the Galaxy Tab 10.1 for the German market only and named it Galaxy Tab 10.1N to get around the sales ban. Apple challenged the reworked version but a German court last month rejected Apple's claims in a preliminary judgment." The European Union announced some more bad news for Samsung: they'll be investigating the company to see whether its use of patent lawsuits is illegally hindering other companies' use of standardized 3G technology. "Under EU patent rules, a company that holds patents for standardized products is required to license them out indiscriminately at a fair price."
When you actually do work, its hard to ignore using the best available tool for the job, regardless of the politics involved. I dont have time nor energy to take an ideological stand on everything. At some point we all have real work to get done and quite honestly a truly useable smartphone and tablet GREATLY enhance my work performance. Im going to pick and use the best one that fits my workflow and needs, I dont have the luxury of taking sides. Taking a stand is great, but I have bigger fish to fry then voting insignificantly with my wallet.
Good-bye
C'mon, let's be reasonable. A court may get things wrong, which is why we have a robust system of appeals processes and multiple overlapping jurisdictions. But you have to admit that there's a growing consensus among the courts world over that Samsung was a bad boy. The issue is not black&white, and there's no clear winner, but maybe it's time to turn down the apple is teh evilzzz! vitriol.
Samsung ripped off the look of the packaging AND the product. This is even before you turn the thing on! Copying visual design of popular products falls under copyright as a graphical design.
As far as I'm concerned, this is a flaky area, since it becomes difficult to distinguish what is a unique design, and what is the current trend in design, but in this particular case the copying is blatantly obvious. To add to that, the rules (law) says that such practice is illegal.
Is the box design some common good that should be copied? no. Lay off it Samsung.