Apple do it again - Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Nexus banned in the US

[Junkers]

Source: BBC News - Apple patent case: Samsung Galaxy Nexus banned in US

A judge in California has blocked US sales of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphones while the court decides on the firm's patent dispute with Apple.


US District Judge Lucy Koh said Apple "has shown a likelihood of establishing both infringement and validity".


Earlier this week, she barred sales of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the US until the case was resolved.


However, she said that Apple would have to post bonds of nearly $100m (£64m) to enforce the rare pre-trial injunctions.


The bonds serve to secure payment of damages sustained by Samsung should it win the cases.


Samsung, the South Korean electronics giant, said it was "disappointed" by Friday's decision.

An interesting thing to note is the judge who banned the Nexus also banned the Tab 10.1. What has happened to the world of technology? It used to be about besting the competition hardware wise, now it's all done in the courts. Since the death of Jobs, Apple have become more aggressive in banning Samsung's products.

It's pretty evident that Samsung are a massive threat to Apple and they have the hardware to beat any iOS mobile device performance wise and bang-for-buck wise. But this is getting beyond ridiculous!

Alternative sources:

Mashable

[EliteGM]

Any information on why? Probably because one button on the UI is the same or something?

[Jolin88]

Probably because some of the pixels on the screen displayed the same colors as apples screen at a given moment.
Patents laws should be revised, it makes sense to have patent laws but this is just too much, you shouldn't be able to patent a simple design idea otherwise that will kill any innovation because everything is based on some existing things

[Hejula]

Steve Jobs was never about this furious competition (my opinion), and he wouldn't have allowed his team to get sales of another companies phone to be blocked. They're going way over the top with this and all it will lead to is people getting their phones illegally imported from another country.

[Junkers]

Quotes from The Guardian newspaper:

Apple's claims that mobile phone copies iPhone technology upheld by US court and follows ban on sales of Samsung Tab

Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet accused Samsung of copying the look and feel of its products. Samsung was not immediately available for comment.

Article: Samsung Galaxy Nexus banned in US | Technology | The Guardian

edit: playing devil's advocate here, what if it's all a big conspiracy to ban foreign Asian technology and promote American products?

[EliteGM]

illuminati! conspiracy! blasphemY!

[Ron]

"Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet accused Samsung of copying the look and feel of its products. "

All fucking smartphones look the same because they are all touchscreen. The only ones that look any different are the ones with keyboards.

Fuck sake. I feel like smashing my iPod just because of how stupid Apple is being. I understand doing certain things to gain a competitive edge, but this is just stupid. They realized other companies have finally found cost efficient ways to catch up with Apple, spending less money to make better hardware, and now all they're doing is using the flawed US patent system to squeeze out the last bit of sales they can before their design fails.

The blame is more on the judge really, for not realizing because of the consumer demand for slim touchscreen devices its hard to differentiate with anything other than color. People like certain things, and if that causes similarities between products then I say let the best company win. Apple needs to hurry up and die so the mobile tech industry can start to grow again.

[Junkers]

You can argue that when it comes to tech related patents surely there's a judge with some experience in the tech field who would be more suited to rule on these types of proceedings? It's like the SOPA bill - people who know jack all about what it is they're trying to regulate, goofing up spectacularly.

[Jolin88]

What I don't understand is that in the end Samsung helps Apple make better processors (source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_A5)
Samsung should just let them die with shitty outdated processors they'd make more money from losing a competitor than from gaining some %tage on their sales

[Junkers]

There's probably some massive financial deal between the two, I'm gonna have a dig around and see what I can find

[.Yoss.]

Steve Jobs was never about this furious competition (my opinion), and he wouldn't have allowed his team to get sales of another companies phone to be blocked. They're going way over the top with this and all it will lead to is people getting their phones illegally imported from another country.

Yes he was, he probably got his wonderful idea after playing too much german chess while doing acid and then started reading laws and having fun with them or maybe he just asked his legal team to do it for him. He bought a new mercedes every six months only so that he could drive his car without a number plate and then parked it on a slot reserved for disabled people outside the apple building.

[Junkers]

Yes he was, he probably got his wonderful idea after playing too much german chess while doing acid and then started reading laws and having fun with them or maybe he just asked his legal team to do it for him. He bought a new mercedes every six months only so that he could drive his car without a number plate and then parked it on a slot reserved for disabled people outside the apple building.

Well if you have pancreatic cancer then I think you have every right to be using a disabled spot but why don't we keep this discussion related to the news article rather than our own opinions of Steve Jobs, shall we?

[Parker]

Saw this on Twitter and found it amusing.

[Robert]

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/patentsact1977.pdf

(2) It is hereby declared that the following (among other things) are not inventions for the purposes of this Act, that is to say, anything which consists of -
(a) a discovery, scientific theory or mathematical method;
(b) a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or any other aesthetic creation whatsoever;
(c) a scheme, rule or method for performing a mental act, playing a game or doing business, or a program for a computer;
(d) the presentation of information;

I don't know about US courts, but in the UK you can't patent aethetics. Ie, the "look and feel". I guess that's why the UK hasn't banned anything.

Again from UK law, so possibly not applicable to this case:

Inventive step
3. An invention shall be taken to involve an inventive step if it is not obvious to a person skilled in the art, having regard to any matter which forms part of the state of the art by virtue only of section 2(2) above (and disregarding section 2(3) above).

How can a judge who isn't a person skilled in the art of phone design, judge if a product is inventive? Hell I'd challenge a lot of current patents as not being inventive. Stuff like having two touch locations, anyone with an old touch screen phone not wanting this must be mad, and I'm sure phone engineers from many companies could work out a solution, but if many engineers could create a solution why would only one get a patent? Every time a patent is filed, they should look for a competing company and ask how they would do it, if it's the same as the patent, neither would get the patent on it.

But alas the patent system is now made to destroy innovation rather than foster it.

[zJordan]

What apple is up to pisses me off...