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Appeals Court Bans Features From Older Samsung Phones

Posted by Soulskill on from the of-barn-doors-and-horses dept.

walterbyrd writes with news that Apple has finally emerged victorious in a long-standing patent case against Samsung — though it's more of a moral victory than a practical one. Samsung is no longer allowed to sell some of its older phones unless the company disables features that infringe upon Apple patents. "The market impact will likely be limited, since the lawsuit was filed in 2012 and covers products that came out that year, like the Galaxy S3. Furthermore, software updates to Samsung software mean that the patents may not be infringed anymore. For instance, Samsung's Android phones no longer use a 'slide to unlock' feature on the bottom of the phone. In dissent, U.S. Circuit Judge Sharon Prost paints a sharply different picture (PDF) from the majority. 'This is not a close case,' she writes, noting that Apple's patents cover a spelling correction feature it doesn't use, and two others cover 'minor features' out of 'many thousands.'"

4 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. Don't forget people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    This is the court case where Samsung presented Apple blue-prints showing the entire iThing UI and hardware design was lifted from Sony, who strangely haven't sued Apple. The documents were too inconvenient and the judge ordered they be removed from the record citing they arrived too late. Yes, too late, despite rendering Apple's case moot.

    Can't have those slitty eyed eastern types showing a trendy US corporation ripping off the nations that build their products, then pretending to have invented it. Ban the gooks!

  2. Wait what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Slide to unlock?
    Pretty much every android devices use that, even Windows 10 uses that junk that, is Apple going to sue Microsoft for it?

    1. Re:Wait what? by gstoddart · · Score: 2, Interesting

      And on doors for hundreds of years.

      Sorry, but there are real world analogs to this ... which makes this yet another moronic patent which essentially says "a system and methodology for doing something which is well understood in the real world, but with a computer".

      So many of the visual metaphors used in computers are basically copies of things you do with real physical things. Granting patents on them means the concept of patents has become useless.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  3. Re:Seriously? by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Don't just blame the court. In some respect, they are doing their job enforcing an approved patent. The real culprit is the patent office allowing just trivia to be patented. At some level, the courts can overrule, but it is harder than enforcing.