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Obama Administration Refuses To Overturn Import Ban On Samsung Products
Chris453 writes "In August 2013, President Obama issued a veto to an import ban of the iPhone 4S after Samsung won several court battles against Apple claiming that the iPhone 4S violated several of Samsung's patents. A few months ago, Samsung was on the receiving end of a very similar case filed by Apple. The International Trade Commission decided that several of Samsung's phones (Transform, Acclaim, Indulge, and Intercept models) violated Apple's patents, and should face import bans. Despite the similarities between the two cases, the Obama administration today announced that it would not veto the International Trade Commission import ban against Samsung products. The move that could spark a trade dispute between the U.S. and South Korea."
US politicians, bent you say? Surely not!
One was a US court ruling, the other a ruling by the International Trade Commission. Presumably, the ITC ruling affects imports to other countries as well.
You could spy on every citizen in your country. That's pretty blatant.
He bailed out Apple in order to "preserve the market" or some such claptrap. How is treating Samsung differently remotely consistent here?
The subtleties of the two bans don't really matter since that wasn't the stated reason for giving Apple a free ride last time around.
Flaming hypocrisy.
Of course getting near the presidency will ensure that your candidate is just like any other corrupt white guy regardless of whether your candidate is black or a woman. No one should ever had any delusions in that regard.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
It is precise that, Samsung ISN'T an american company, and therefore doesn't get the veto. It was very clear when Apple got the veto that something fishy was going on, normally Obamah wouldn't have anything to do with it..
> Samsung's patents were standards essential patents which they promised to license under FRAND terms. >
> Apple's patents are not standards essential as proven by the fact that Samsung has designed around them in their newer products.
The end result of this is predictable.
Samsung's patents are FRAND because they are over actual technology, you know, stuff like radios, modulation techniques, and other things actually developed in a lab.
Apples patents are for things like bouncy scrolling, and slide to unlock.
If the holder of FRAND patents cannot negotiate with an infringer for a fair price, and the infringer can also sue over its own patents and demand outrageous royalties per device, then the end result is clear.
No more FRAND patents. No company making actual technology has any economic interest in putting its patents under FRAND terms. Decades of cooperation on technology standards come to an end.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Samsung just needed to make small adjustments and has updated their models to provide models that don't violate the patents, the ban is on slightly older models that did violate the patents. Apple's ban was much wider and didn't have any small workaround and would have destroyed their market.
But that doesn't make sense. Samsung commits relatively minor patent infringements, and the import ban stands. Apple commits major patent infringements that result in a much more severe ban and the ban is vetoed.
Apple is an American company.
How do you figure? At least one Apple exec told US workers to stuff it, as Apple doesn't owe them anything. Apple makes almost everything overseas. Meanwhile, Samsung has US operations (for example http://www.androidcentral.com/samsung-expand-us-operations-two-new-california-facilities [androidcentral.com] ). Stop thinking of Apple as American just because their headquarters are here.
I have no, none, zero, zip, nada loyalty or favor towards "American" companies. They have no loyalty towards this country, so why should they get special favor from the US government? There is no quid pro quo, so tell 'em to stuff it.
Meanwhile my wife and I drive Toyota's. They're 80% and 85% value added in the USA, which makes them more American than most so-called American cars.
P.S. Part of the 1st paragraph is a cut and paste from my post above, but it seemed even more appropriate here.
And they don't pay much taxes here. But how much did Apple vs Samsung contribute to campaign funds?
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
The text for this item is misleading, failing to account for the reasons given for these decisions. And anyone still suggesting this is American bias for their own companies, please explain why the EU is leaning in the same direction? It's not like the EU is pro-US in many decisions.
Obamas decision, and the EU's charges against Samsung (not Apple), hinge around the use of standards-essential patents as a weapon to stifle innovation and competition.
I'd rather not see such obviously one-eyed political slandering pandered as a tech item on sites like Slashdot - save it for the tabloids.
Samsung's patents are FRAND because...
Samsung's patents are FRAND because they, themselves, submitted their patents to a standards body for inclusion in an industry standard and they, themselves, agreed to license the patents under FRAND terms.
The FRAND terms were not forced upon them. They elected to participate in the standards process and they elected to abide by the FRAND licensing requirements. And then they broke their promise by selectively targeting certain competitors with unreasonable rates, breaking their FRAND obligations.
Please stop pretending that Samsung is the victim here and put a smidge of effort into understanding how the entire standards essential process works.
It is not about stupidity. It is about control. Obama is a sockpuppet for his corporate sponsors. He does not have his views, he just reads all this crap from his teleprompter and signs whatever his corporate sponsors want him to sign. That's all. After ending his silly presidency, he'll have his well paid, warm chair in Goldman Sachs, Apple or some other corrupt corporation. He'll have his speeches paid $500'000 a pop. Just like Bill Clinton or Tony Blair.
You see, staying in office isn't an end in itself for modern politicians. It is merely an interim position in their quest of getting insanely rich. Their carreer begins AFTER they get out of office and stays until they collect few hundred milions dollars or so. Staying in office for entire life like those pesky congressmen do is so old school.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-05/apple-vs-samsung-lobby-spending-or-spot-reason-obamas-unprecedented-veto
as long as people think of Samsung as a Korean company...
And Apple as an American company.
Apple claimed, and got a court to agree with them, that any rectangular phone with rounded corners violated their patents.
There's no standard that says phones should not slice your fingers when you touch the edges, but it is nevertheless an essential design property. That's not a requirement of GSM, that's common fucking sense.
If you think Samsung is somehow the aggressor here and Apple is a poor hurt little child, you need a serious reality check. Ever since it became apparent that the iPhone had a real competitor in Android, Apple has been trying to shut down the competition left right and center with bogus patents that should not exist.
Firstly, a US court with a Silicon Valley jury found for Apple despite serious juror misconduct (to the extent that their judgement made no sense and they had to be told to do it again). Then after Samsung managed to hit back Obama himself vetoed the punishment.
These events have made the US look like a banana republic where the justice system is weak and laughable.
Slapping "Obama" on a headline just starts up a bunch of uninformed hyperbolic responses that add zilch to the discussion. I'm not a lawyer, so I'd like to know what the difference is between both cases. I'm assuming they're not symmetrical.
BTW, to you editors: Fuck you and all your red meat summaries.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
The only thing Apple makes in the US are profits and vacation plans.
And iMacs. And R&D. Etc.
Bizarre. You think I just made that up? Go read the summary on Wikipedia and in particular pay attention to the following section:
Must be nice when $12.2B is not considered "much".
Everything is obvious, once someone else has done it. Magnetically attached power cords that don't rip your laptop off a table when your cat/kid/own clumsy self trips over the cable, for example.
But it took a good 25 years or so from the first laptops for someone to think of it.
If I was paying 2/3 of what I currently pay in taxes I would certainly consider it not much in taxes.
I guess just because they didn't keep all the money for themselves it's OK.
I mean, we should be happy they even paid what they did.