Swiss Railway: Apple's Using Its Clock Design Without Permission

An anonymous reader writes "Apple received a lot of criticism during the Apple/Samsung litigation this past Summer as folks deemed it absurd that Apple was able to patent things such as icon design and the overall form factor of a smartphone. Well as it turns out, it appears that Apple has engaged in some copying of its own in the form of the new clock icon design used in iOS 6 on the iPad- a rather ironic turn of events given that Apple railed against Samsung for copying its own iOS icons. Specifically, the clock icon in iOS 6 on the iPad is a blatant copy of a Hans Hilfiker design to which both the trademark and copyright is owned by the Swiss Federal Railways service."

Comments

Re:Difference is direct competition!

[hyanakin]

Actually, some swiss guy asked the swiss federal railroad if he can use the design for an according app in the AppStore. The swiss federal railroad gave him permission to do so.

Now comes Apple and rips off the design also - so there is a direct competition between the app developer and Apple.

Mine ---

[GPierce]

Back in the US railroad days there was a tycoon named Collis Huntington. He was known to be ruthless and greedy - kind of the same OCD type as Steve Jobs. Huntington is quoted as saying (more or less):

        All I want is what's mine. Whatever is not nailed down is mine. If I can pry it loose, it was not nailed down.