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Uncategorized Thursday, July 26th 2012 at 3:42 pm

Apple Claims Samsung Knew Darn Well They Were Copycats

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Apple plans to hit Samsung where it hurts in court next week: Right in the stuff they said. Not only did Samsung expressly state their intention to copy bits from the iPad and iPhone in their products, says Apple, they were also warned against doing so by a number of designers as well as Google. When Google shows up and tells you to consider redesigning your product, you should probably consider redesigning your product.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the lawsuit against Samsung by Apple, here’s a tweet-sized summary of what’s happened so far:

2011: Apple sues Samsung for making their products look like iPods. Samsung says they didn’t. Turns into 50 suits in 10 countries. #Really?

Yesterday, both companies filed briefs detailing their patent claims and legal artillery shells they have pointed at each other. Apple’s brief claims that Samsung discussed the similarities between the Galaxy 10.1 and the iPad and, therefore, had full knowledge they were making an iPad clone. The brief also states that Samsung received a number of warnings that their tablets and phones were too similar to Apple products. AllThingsD helpfully offers a few bits pulled from Apple’s brief:

  • In February 2010, Google told Samsung that Samsung’s “P1” and “P3” tablets (Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Tab 10.1) were “too similar” to the iPad and demanded “distinguishable design vis-à-vis the iPad for the P3.”
  • In 2011, Samsung’s own Product Design Group noted that it is “regrettable” that the Galaxy S “looks similar” to older iPhone models.
  • As part of a formal, Samsung-sponsored evaluation, famous designers warned Samsung that the Galaxy S “looked like it copied the iPhone too much,” and that “innovation is needed.” The designers explained that the appearance of the Galaxy S “[c]losely resembles the iPhone shape so as to have no distinguishable elements,” and “[a]ll you have to do is cover up the Samsung logo and it’s difficult to find anything different from the iPhone.”

    • There’s no denying that the two products have a great deal in common. Samsung’s own lawyers couldn’t even tell them apart at a distance of 10 feet. Despite all this, Samsung has a few tricks up its sleeve, including a few emails with evidence that Apple copied their competitor Sony’s designs in their designs of the iPhone. This seems to me like less of a defense for Samsung and more of a “But they started it!”

    All of these lawsuits seem to me like the bickering of a pair of second graders. What this case really needs is my elementary school teacher, Sister Theresa. She would shuffle up with her orthopedic shoes and her vaguely Irish accent and say, ”I’ve had about enough out of you two! Samsung, it was wrong of you to copy Apple’s work. As for you, Apple, no one likes a tattletale. I want you both to apologize and shake hands. Go on!”

    She would probably have made them say a few rosaries too, just for good measure. We’ll have to see how this all turns out in court next week. The trial kicks off Monday, when the court picks out the jury.

    (via All Things D)

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    • Sheeple

      They are not. I hope Apple will fall. They are a evil company.

    • Anonymous

      As I recall a Judge has said Samsung DID NOT copy the itoy.  apple is lying and they “darn well know it”  One of the reasons jobs is dead is Samsung scared him to death and another is he was evil just like his rotten fruit company.

      Samsung is a Superior Company and make Superior Products…Pure and Simple.

    • Jack Bond

      Wow, so much hate for Apple. I don’t know what they did that’s so wrong. All they do is make technology with simple, intuitive interfaces– albeit, shallow functionality.

    • Two Eyes, One Mouth

      It’s very simple.  Samsung copied it.
      FYI, I am a Korean.  People here don’t know a thing about “design” let alone appreciate a good one.
      All they talk about here is that H/W is the real deal that brings revenue and design is an afterthought, which is exactly why they are wondering why this is such a big deal to Apple.
      Simply a battle b/w H/W guys and Design guys.
      All in all, it is clear to everyone’s eyes that Samsung copied Apple down to the packaging which Jobs himself contributed in designing.  Ouch.

    • Someguy

       How many ways can you not design a tablet to look like an LCD monitor with no stand?

      This is like Ford suing every other car company for making things with wheels.

      The iPad looks a lot like my Wacom Cintiq. Is Apple going to sue them, too?

    • Two Eyes, One Mouth

      Don’t use such stupid hindsight “anyone could’ve used it”
      You know what?  The fact of the matter is, nobody was willing to go that simple on design until Apple showed up.
      If you go around the art museum somewhere around the world, there are some works that are too simple to be called art.
      Apple applied their philosophy of simplicity to the electronic phone.
      Just because rectangle and circle are the basic forms you learn in elementary algebra, you cannot say you can apply it to any appliances
      For example, coming up with one button in phone is a heckvu design.  Just because it is norm now, you cannot deny the fact that it wasn’t a few years back then.
      It’s like saying, oh I knew TV was going to be invented in a rectangle form (because we are so used to it now)
      You mentioned the four wheeled vehicle.  As a matter of fact, if somebody chose to patent it with the current legal patent system in place, he might have sued all the late players manufacturing the same thing.  Back then, nobody anticipated the level of competition at this rate.

    • Troyldailey

      I haven’t seen the products in person…but judging by that photo, the Samsung is half the size of the apple, and with a few more control buttons on the front.  Though t be honest, they are both rectangles with a black-faced glass type screen.  On this basis, IBM could sue Apple for copyright infringement for the Apple II back in the eighties.  Or Tandy could sue Apple for the MacIntosh (Tandy was famous for making all-in-one CRT and tower/floppy-drives….Apple didn’t come up with that design until the Mac).

    • idlethoughts

      The Judge in the Uk did but the one in the US and Australia ruled in Apples favor, international issues are complicated like that.

    • oli

      “For example, coming up with one button in phone is a heckvu design.
      Just because it is norm now, you cannot deny the fact that it wasn’t a
      few years back then.”

      You are soooo right. Samsung’s design with one button and big screen from F700 is now widely used, even iPhone which was released later than Samsung’s design had this one button. Darn Apple copycats.