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Apple Seeks To Block 8 Samsung Products After Court Win

Posted by timothy on from the rent-seeking-isn't-the-free-market dept.

angry tapir writes "Apple has asked a U.S. court to block sales of eight Samsung Electronics products, following the iPhone maker's victory in a patent lawsuit against Samsung. In a filing to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Apple asked for preliminary injunctions against seven smartphones carrying its Galaxy brand, plus the Droid Charge. It based the requests on a jury's ruling on Friday that Samsung had infringed several Apple patents. Apple said it wants the preliminary injunction pending a final injunction."

40 of 396 comments (clear)

  1. Apple is dead to me by div_2n · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I used to recommend people to buy their computers. I actually specifically tell people "just about anything but Apple" now.

    Congratulations Apple. You might have won this battle (for now, appeal pending) but I assure you that you've lost the war.

    1. Re:Apple is dead to me by Krneki · · Score: 5, Informative
      Apple is doing shit like that from a very long time. Why do you think we hate them so much?

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Apple_Inc.

      Probably they are second only to Sony.

      --
      Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
    2. Re:Apple is dead to me by openfrog · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Apple does not realize the ill-will it is creating with this. It may think this will be limited to a few slash-dotters whining on a forum. The usual stuff. But this is not usual.

      I often read on Slashdot that Bill Gates at Microsoft was a good businessman. I don't believe so. Microsoft awful practices have earned it a reputation that has led to its current decline. Apple, as the David against Goliath, use to have a lot of sympathy as a result. But its reputation was also earned on the basis of a preoccupation for the product and for the user experience that was lacking at Microsoft. We believed that Apple was on our side.

      If you take Apple as superseding Microsoft on the basis of a better understanding of users' interests, you can then see Google as going further on that account, and greatly benefiting from the confidence they earn as a result. The understanding of the user's interests is much clearer in Google's case, and more sustained (despite all attacks on this account by its enemies) than it ever was in the case of Apple, despite the great show they made of it, 1984 and all.

      It may take time, but Apple will pay dearly for what they are doing. They are trashing their name, and their reputation. What a shame.

    3. Re:Apple is dead to me by Dinghy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ...since when did everyone's purchasing habits depend on you?

      When people want to buy something (short of an impulse buy), they research it. During their research they will ask the opinions of people they respect and feel are knowledgeable on the subject. I'm sorry if your friends and family don't consider you an expert (or consider you too much of a jerk to approach) but there's a rather significant number of people on Slashdot who routinely get asked for computer/electronics purchase advise.

    4. Re:Apple is dead to me by slashmydots · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I've been telling them that since Premiere CS4 was released, lol. But seriously, they've had this attitude since like 2000. Their marketing was all about elitism and being better than your friends. Once they paired with Starbucks on some deals, it was almost comically obvious. They turned paying too much into a fashion statement.

      Then they did everything they could to act like they had a monopoly even though they had like 5% of the market. They'd bully competitors, over control hardware pricing and availability, lock in prices and threaten vendors who sell lower, etc. They had special RAM made that only fit their systems, sued Psystar, etc. They had the reputation of being the platform for graphics and video editing but like I said, CS4 ended that damn quick. CUDA on a wimpy GT440 = 8x faster rendering than dual 8-core Xeons. Unfortunately, almost no Nvidia cards come in a mac. That doesn't stop them from pretending they're still for video editing though. Now in Photoshop Elements 10 and CS6, they have severe compatibility and font problems so it's pretty much over for them on that front. It'll take years to undo their propaganda that they're the best though. I do usually convince people with actual charts, or just reference their awful human rights violations and unfair business practices.

      They've had so many macbook hardware problems lately and back in 07 they had severe overheating problems with their initial core2 duo systems because Steve Jobs is too important to have fans blowing out of his devices.

      Then there's the way that they run the App store like nazis and iTunes quite similarly. You think you bought that song? Oh hell no! And you can't redownload it either. So everyone, do everything you can to tell everyone you can that Apple sucks and it will turn into another Vista. All the positive marketing in the world couldn't stop tech experts from giving people the real story and ruining their business.

    5. Re:Apple is dead to me by squiggleslash · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Only one of these two companies is trying to prevent you from owning the other's products.

      View of Samsung? Neutral to positive. They employ people, build good stuff, and don't appear to have significant negatives.

      View of Apple? Negative. While they also employ people and build "good" stuff (I don't like iPhones myself, but others do and should have the right to be able to buy them), they do use lawsuits to attack my choices at the end of the day, and prevent others from being employed, and others from building good stuff I actually want.

      Fuck Apple.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    6. Re:Apple is dead to me by jedidiah · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Apple is a bit more evil than Samsung.

      It's like you're watching the cold war as a spectator in a 3rd country and suddenly one of them decides to start World War III. It makes a differences who that perpetrator is.

      Your attempt to ignore the relevant moral difference there is not convincing.

      It does matter who lobbed the first nuke. That party is responsible for the everything that happens after that.

      Patents used to be a game of mutual assured destruction except Apple was actually stupid enough to flip the switch.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    7. Re:Apple is dead to me by Karlt1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "I often read on Slashdot that Bill Gates at Microsoft was a good businessman. I don't believe so. Microsoft awful practices have earned it a reputation that has led to its current decline."

      You really think that MS's reputation led to it's "decline"?

      1. Microsoft is more profitable than it was during the trial

      2. Windows is still on 90% + of the world's computers

      3. Office still has the largest share of the productivity market by a wide margin,

      Microsoft didn't "decline" it just didn't rise as fast as Apple.

      MS just hasn't succeeded in anything lately -- search, phones, tablets, etc. because of shoddy execution -- not because of it's "reputation".

      "If you take Apple as superseding Microsoft on the basis of a better understanding of users' interests, you can then see Google as going further on that account, and greatly benefiting from the confidence they earn as a result. The understanding of the user's interests is much clearer in Google's case"

      Google hasn't "succeeded" at anything besides being an advertising company. As far as profitability, Android (especially with the money-losing $10B + MMI acquisition) has been a net loss for Google. Even now, according to Google 66% of all mobile revenue comes from iOS.

    8. Re:Apple is dead to me by MachineShedFred · · Score: 4, Informative

      So I guess you have no problem with Samsung directly screwing the end customer through price fixing in the LCD, mobile phone, and DRAM markets? Because they've either settled, or been convicted of all three.

      Samsung is *not* a well behaved company.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    9. Re:Apple is dead to me by Shadow99_1 · · Score: 3, Informative

      I bought a Asus Transformer Prime to use for work and I've had at least a few dozen people by now comment on it. Usually they don't even realize it's a tablet until I show them. This whole process tends to involve me giving a pros/cons pitch on it. At least five that I know of have now gone and purchased either a first or second gen transformer tablet now...

      So I'd say if anything your understating the potential effect.

      --
      we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
    10. Re:Apple is dead to me by Shagg · · Score: 4, Informative

      They are a corporation and they have a fiduciary responsibility to protect their IP from theft. In other words, Apple had no choice but to launch this lawsuit

      Nonsense.

      --
      Unix is user friendly, it's just selective about who its friends are.
  2. I still don't see what the problem is by Tastecicles · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So Samsung "copied" Apple's use of corners and low profile SMCs to create thinner devices? You know what? I'll still buy Samsung over Apple even if they were the same price, and you want to know why?

    It's because no company that resorts to litigating its competition out of existence because it can't offer something as good, if not better, for the same money, *deserves* my money. End of.

    To anyone that says I'm jumping on the pro-Samsung bandwagon just because they're the little guy in all this: fuck off.

    --
    Operation Guillotine is in effect.
    1. Re:I still don't see what the problem is by Tastecicles · · Score: 5, Insightful

      except the Samsung phones aren't running iOS.

      Would you like to play again?

      --
      Operation Guillotine is in effect.
    2. Re:I still don't see what the problem is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The problem is a F'd Up IP system that makes all this possible, and quite possibly the most prudent way to do business. Take these litigation tools away and businesses will go back to needing real innovation rather than punting all competitors with some lame "Button displayed in center of screen" or "Electronics in a plastic enclosure" patent. Patents were supposed to protect the little guy, but how do you even break into a market where every aspect of doing anything is owned by someone?

    3. Re:I still don't see what the problem is by Tastecicles · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I understand where you're coming from, really I do. What I'm objecting to is a company that sells for $600, something that is functionally and visually similar to a device that another company sells for $100 - made out of the same component parts, even! - and has a hissy fit when they can't figure out why their market's being eaten away.

      --
      Operation Guillotine is in effect.
    4. Re:I still don't see what the problem is by Tastecicles · · Score: 4, Informative

      Apple don't just sell smartphones.

      TEN BIGGEST SMARTPHONE MANUFACTURERS BY UNIT SALES IN Q2 2012

      Rank, Maker, Units, Market Share, Was in Q1 of 2012
      1 Samsung 50.4 M 32.9 % ( 30.6 %)
      2 Apple 26.0 M 17.0 % ( 24.2 %)
      3 Nokia 10.2 M 6.7 % ( 8.2 %)
      4 HTC 8.8 M 5.8 % ( 5.4 %)
      5 ZTE 8.0 M 5.2 % ( 3.4 %)
      6 RIM 7.8 M 5.1 % ( 7.6 %)
      7 Sony 7.5 M 4.9 % ( 5.0 %)
      8 Huawei 7.0 M 4.6 % ( 4.8 %)
      9 LG 6.5 M 4.2 % ( 3.8 %)
      10 Motorola 6.0 M 3.9 % ( 3.5 %)
      Others 10.8 M 7.3 % ( 3.3 %)
      TOTAL 153.0 M

      In fact, Samsung sell twice as many smartphones as Apple.

      Care to play again?

      --
      Operation Guillotine is in effect.
    5. Re:I still don't see what the problem is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Your limited knowledge means nothing.
      Search for Lindt vs Hauswirth for an example of a chocolate company suing another.
      You can easily find more examples.

    6. Re:I still don't see what the problem is by Nidi62 · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's not like Apple sells things besides smartphones....oh wait....

      In the smartphone market, they are getting killed. Look what a previous poster posted: Samsung sells almost twice as many smartphones as Apple does. It's only when you add in iOS, Macs, etc where you get Apple's massive profits and market share. That is why Apple is freaking out and going after Samsung like this.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    7. Re:I still don't see what the problem is by squiggleslash · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This is a Droid Charge:

      http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/02/droid-charge-review/

      Now, perhaps you should rewrite your comment changing who, exactly, is "purposely trying to muddle the differences between (the products of Apple and Samsung)"! You might also want to look at the court evidence that Apple submitted, such as the infamous "pre" and "post" iPhone images - that looked absurd when Samsung produced its own version with a much wider, less edited, range of phones on show.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    8. Re:I still don't see what the problem is by hjf · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I hate Apple. And I think this lawsuit is bullshit, but I try to look at the bright side of things, and I want to believe this lawsuit will mean, finally, innovation in the smartphone market again. A couple of years ago, Motorola had some interesting phones (Backflip, Flipout and the Droid/Milestone series). Nowadays most, if not all, of the smartphones out there are "full touch", thin, rounded edges.

      The Galaxy S/S2 were really extreme. Samsung even copied the charger design! I It sounds racist, but the guys at Samsung were acting like typicial asians: cloning the fuck out of everything that makes money.

      I hope this lawsuit will mean we'll finally start seeing innovation on the smartphone market again. My theory is that "everything looks like Apple" because manufacturers think it's about *LOOKING* like apple. Yet, Apple is still the king. The key isn't looking like apple, but *being* apple. It's giving you the experience of apple. It's getting a computer, laptop, smartphone, and tablet, and have them all work together. It's not worrying about drivers or compatibility. It's about the "just works".

      I got myself an HTC Sensation the other day. I'm very happy with it so far. But I went to connect it to my PC: it required drivers that didn't even came with the phone. I found them on XDA. If I was to download some "suite" for it, it would sure be a 400MB or more download, requiring me to constantly update it. That's the reason why people choose apple. Given the same price and features, the ability for it to "just work" is the dealbreaker.

      Sync has been solved by Android, but there isn't yet a *SIMPLE* backup option for my phone like there is with, say, Nokia, which just lets me plug my phone and hit Backup and have a backup file on my desktop. Sure, I modded and rooted my phone and I can do that and more with Nandroid. But to 99% of people that means nothing.

      Manufacturers: get it straight, we want things that look like apple, or don't; and have keyboards or don't; and are white, or black, or silver, or red, blue, pink, purple, yellow even. We want colors, we want laser engraving, and replaceable covers. But we also want a plain black plastic phone. Or made with silly kevlar and alluminum alloy. Oh and a 4.3" screen. And also 2.5". And candybar style phones. And clamshell phones. And also slider phones. And blackberry-style phones. We also want to be able to plug to our computer and work nicely with Windows, or mac, or linux. We want full USB mass storage, or MTD. We also want the option to jailbreak/root/mod/S-OFF/unlock (locked bootloader was the reason I didn't get Moto this time). We don't want to be bothered with drivers (come on, it's easy enough for you to standarize on something and have Microsoft ship drivers with windows). Oh and we certainly don't want stuff that slow down our phones and can't be removed/replaced (MotoBlur, HTC Sense...). And we want updates. Get it together against the carriers and GIVE US THE FUCKING UPDATES. Motorola: why did the Backflip only get android 2.1 in the US, and we in the rest of the world got only android 1.6? Why doesn't the HTC Sensation in my carrier get ICS but the "no contract" one does? But any iphone gets all the goodies.

      You know what we don't want? That all the phones out there are just clones of the iphone.

    9. Re:I still don't see what the problem is by Coryoth · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, he's saying that the vast profits that Apple successfully made by being the first mover in this field is already plenty of incentive the invest in such "risky" endeavours -- Apple has earned well above and beyond any research costs -- so we probably don't need to grant special monopoly rights for an extra 15 years just to get companies to invest in innovative research.

      --
      Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
  3. Re:This will stifle innovation by miffo.swe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The problem is that whatever you might think of, someone has already a patent on it or a patent that's broad enough to cover what you do. Not because they ever thought of using the phone like you, but because they sought to cover as broad base as possible with their patent.

    If Apple had been held to your standards they would never have gotten into the mobile industry at all since its impossible to build a mobile phone without infringing on thousands of patents on hardware alone from thousands of different companies and private inventors. If a fucking bounce effect costs billions to use, how fucking much do you think a fucking complete mobile phone would cost? Its not like Apple waddled into a vacuum and suddenly made a phone nobody had ever done before with never unheard of components.

    --
    HTTP/1.1 400
  4. What's really funny... by Tastecicles · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...is that Samsung parts make up a solid quarter of the electronics in iPhones and iPads! It gets better: Samsung fabricate the phones...!

    So what happens to Apple if Samsung decide to be bastards and pull the plug on parts /and/ assembly? What the fuck can Apple do about it? Precisely *nothing*!

    --
    Operation Guillotine is in effect.
    1. Re:What's really funny... by Xest · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yeah this is the primary reason Samsung wont do that, they make enough profit from it to continue.

      What they could consider doing though is upping the prices to claw back that $1billion that way, and they can even target it. As many point out Apple can go elsewhere, but not on all components - even where other manufacturers can develop other components Samsung often holds patents.

      Screen technology is one area where Samsung could really screw Apple by upping the cost to them, as they're easily the market leaders in this field, both large and small, hence why IIRC even Sony now uses Samsung panels in their TVs. As they invented things like AMOLED they will hold enough patents on current/next gen screen tech to deny Apple access to the best displays, or at least up the cost to them by increasing licensing costs of such tech.

      Apple puts together a good product, but Samsung invents the new technology that Apple needs to build those products, so Apple needs to be very careful. If the rumoured Apple TV turns out to be true for example then Apple is either beholden to Samsung for panels, or they put up with inferior quality panels.

      There's no doubt Apple is playing a dangerous game, and Samsung is well positioned to claw back any cost Apple has made to them. If the lawsuits all continue to go Apple's way they could push Samsung out of the cellphone market, but they've not got a chance in hell of avoiding Samsung in the components market altogether - they hold too many patents and are the sole producer of too many of those components for that to be possible.

  5. Can the ban occur before the appeal? by synapse7 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just wondering.

    If phones can be banned for using pinch to zoom, why not ban them all?

  6. The Charge? Really? by Howitzer86 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Wow, I just looked up what the Droid Charge looked like. It's really quite different from the iPhone. I think my lil' LG looks more like an iPhone than that one does.

    Oh well, I guess they won't be done with this until everyone either has an iPhone or something that looks like an old Black Berry. Heh, I just realized... BB never actually sued companies over releasing similar phones like this did they?

    Maybe if they cared more about their intellectual property they'd be in better shape today. No need to worry about the competition if you can wipe them out in the courts

  7. So they win in the US and lose elsewhere by stiggle · · Score: 4, Informative

    They lost the cases in the UK, Netherlands, Germany but win in the US.

    Part of the ruling in the UK was to put a notice on the website stating that Samsung did not copy Apple.

    1. Re:So they win in the US and lose elsewhere by PortHaven · · Score: 4, Informative

      No, there was a foreman who was an engineer and has multiple patents. And led the juries, to protect the patents because he'd want "his" patents protected.

  8. So you want to push them to the Galaxy SIII? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let's remove the older, slower phones from the market so you'll have to compete only against the SIII, which people say beats the iPhone hands down.

    Smart move Apple.

  9. Do you work at Best Buy or something? by arcite · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Most Apple buyers don't need advice, they already know they want an Apple.

    1. Re:Do you work at Best Buy or something? by QuantumRiff · · Score: 5, Funny

      How do you know if someone has a mac? Don't worry, they'll tell you...

      --

      What are we going to do tonight Brain?
  10. Re:This will stifle innovation by Missing.Matter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Its not like Apple waddled into a vacuum and suddenly made a phone nobody had ever done before with never unheard of components.

    This is what always kills me about those "Before iPhone, after iPhone" and "Before iPad, after iPad" images Apple fans constantly post. They completely miss the fact that Samsung had phone before iPhone and Samsung had tablets before iPad. Apple gets defensive about broad patents on trade dress, but completely neglect the fact that the iPhone has a speaker on the top, which is not so loud as to conform to the sensitivities of the human ear; a mic on the bottom, which is sensitive enough to pic up the human voice; is shaped to fit the human hand and the human head; contains radio technology which enables voice conversations between people across the planet, at the speed of light; relies on networking technology developed by other companies to enable as such.... all the myriad technologies that enable the iPhone to even exist, were in place before the iPhone, and were invented by many of the same companies Apple is so keen to sue for frivolities like scroll bounce.

    These "Before iPhone, after iPhone" images are a direct consequence of the touch screen becoming the primary input device, just as the fact that the iPhone has a speaker on top and a mic on the bottom is a direct consequence of mouth/ear placement on the human head.

  11. Re:This will stifle innovation by noh8rz8 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    umm, no... you're right, to build a phone you need patents for 3g, etc. these are standards essential. you can buy them on frand terms. but design patents are just one way of doing things.

    if the rubber band bounceback is patented, then figure out a different visual cue. i've seen some nice ones elsewhere. if slide to unlock is patented, then figure out a different way. circle to unlock? spin a wheel? there are infinite varieties.

    the OP's point still stands... if you use a little creativity it's no problem to skirt these patents. and it will make for a more vibrant marketplace.

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    You want to upvote/downvote? Go back to Reddit! Here we mod up/mod down.
  12. Re:This will stifle innovation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Android normally doesn't use a bounce effect during scrolling, it uses a glow effect. Pretty much all of the claims only apply to Samsung's modifications to the base Android system (what they call "TouchWiz"), which is why you don't see, e.g., the Galaxy Nexus named in this injunction.

  13. Re:Look and Feel by jbolden · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Apple lost the look and feel lawsuit mainly on issues of standing. But assuming they had won. What would have happened is Microsoft would have had to use very different GUI paradigms in designing Windows. Windows would have had to look and act less like Mac. So they would have used different input methods like maybe the stylus on a tablet / stylus on a resistive touchscreen would have been common. Ideas from OS/2 and NextStep that were circulating in the GUI community about moving towards object oriented GUIs would have been incorporated into Windows. Maybe Be Inc's view of a multimedia desktop (i.e. like Aero). Heck Microsoft might have bough NeXT or Be Inc to transition.

    In other words we would have been much better off.

  14. Re:This will stifle innovation by kryliss · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sardine cans have had this design for decades with a pull to unlock feature included.

    --
    --- If the bible proves the existence of God, then Superman comics prove the existence of Superman.
  15. Re:This will stifle innovation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Which addresses the issue with Samsung. Apple warned them they were infringing and they ignored it at the direction of their management, hence the willfull finding.

    Samsung blatantly copies Apple as directed by upper management, was found guilty in a court of law, and somehow they are the victim?

    Many on here can't seem to separate open source from IP. You aren't entitled to someone else's work. Android avoided this but Samsung didn't.

    Spend your tears on someone who did the work and deserves it.

  16. Re:Samsung by Missing.Matter · · Score: 5, Informative

    Apple is worth more than Samsung, Google, Microsoft, RIM, and Nokia combined.

    Assets:
    Samsung: $384.3B
    Google: $72.6B
    Microsoft: $121.2B
    RIM: $7.7B
    Noika: $45.4B

    Total assets of Samsung, Google, Microsoft, RIM, and Nokia combined: $631.2B

    Total assets of Apple: $116.4B

    Oh, or were you talking about the imaginary measure of "worth" derived from feelings and pixie dust known as market cap? Even not then:

    Market Cap:
    Samsung: $167.1B
    Google: $218.9B
    Microsoft: $257.3B
    RIM: $3.7B
    Noika: $12.06B

    Total market cap of Samsung, Google, Microsoft, RIM, and Nokia combined: $659.0B

    Total market cap of Apple: $633.4B

    Anyway, not sure what a company's worth in relation to others prove about what one company will do with respect to breaking contracts and dropping customers. Remember, Samsung has something much more powerful than fat stacks of cash, something Apple cannot compare: the full backing and support of the South Korean government. Not saying I think it's great a corporation is so close to a government, but that while Apple is making only shiny iToys, Samsung is a massive conglomerate making:

    Textiles
    Securities
    Credit cards
    Insurance
    Chemicals
    Machine tools
    Engineering services
    Electronics
    Semiconductors
    Hotels
    Ships
    Surveillance
    Automations
    Aeronautics
    Oh yeah, and weapons tech... seriously, that's not a company I'd want to fuck with.

  17. Re:This will stifle innovation by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually that's pretty much exactly what happened.

    Yeah, Apple invented something completely out of the blue. None of those old Windows CE "PDA"s (remember those?) had animations, touch screens, etc. Nor were they smartphone shaped. They certainly wouldn't have had an 'i' anywhere in their names.

    Oh, wait....

    --
    No sig today...
  18. Re:This will stifle innovation by pseudofrog · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Again, a bounce effect. It's a bounce effect. It's a meaningless bit of visual flair that should not be patentable. The fact that you can be sued and lose based on something so trivial is the problem.

    Oh wait, it's a bounce effect on a touchscreen device. I guess this should change things?