4 ms·

Apple is lame. They claim Nokia is suing them with dumb patents and then proceed to sue others with their dumb patents...

by arron61 15y ago

Tycho 15y ago
Did you see the pics at the bottom? I thought I was looking at an iPhone photo until I looked a bit closer.
- sukuriant 15y ago
  Indeed. With the exception of the notification bar's organization, it was quite difficult to distinguish the two. I'm against overuse of patents and trademarks, but even to me these are very clearly too similar.
  - dstein 15y ago
    But is putting finger-sized icons on a mobile device something that Apple "invented"? It's not exactly a new technology or concept, it's simply obvious. I recall owning an iPaq that did the same thing years before the iPhone was released. And for that matter every old fashioned telephone ever produced had finger sized icons.
    - sukuriant 15y ago
      It's not the finger-sized icons that are the issue. What makes it very similar to the iPhone are: * the general smooth, rectangular shape of the phone, including a large, center button below the screen * a color-coded section of four buttons at the bottom of the screen that take up the whole space and include "phone", icon on the left-most side. * a speaker in a thin-rectangular shape above the screen. There are a great number of small differences between them, but they are very, very similar. Compare the new Samsung phone with a regular Android UI (e.g. http://www.techwhizz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Android-2.3-Gingerbread-Using-CyanogenMod-6.1.png http://www.techwhizz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Android-... (from http://www.techwhizz.com/feel-android-2-3-gingerbread-cyanogenmod-6-1-tweak/ http://www.techwhizz.com/feel-android-2-3-gingerbread-cyanog... ) and notice that, while the two user interfaces accomplish similar things and both use large buttons, the Samsung UI is incredibly and inappropriately close to the iPhone's, especially if Apple has made a point of claiming that precise format as their own.
jameskilton 15y ago
Frankly, those images are rather damning. The devices and the interface are too similar for Apple to just let this slide. If anything I would say Apple has to do this to avoid setting a very dangerous precedent.
- cookiecaper 15y ago
  Those images are not that damning imo. Both phones are rectangular and thin. Does Apple have a monopoly on rectangular, thin phones? My G1 would look the same if it were thinner. Does Apple have a monopoly on icons arranged in a grid? If so, the Windows desktop and many other interfaces are at risk.
  - cooldeal 15y ago
    Even Windows 3.1 is at risk! http://img.zdnet.com/techDirectory/_PROGMAN.GIF http://img.zdnet.com/techDirectory/_PROGMAN.GIF
    - HelloBeautiful 15y ago
      Apple did sue Microsoft over Windows interface. I wonder how Bill Gates feels nowadays for saving Apple, when Steve Jobs got back. Without MS moral support - promising future releases of Mac Office, and a ton of money - Apple would've probably went bust than.
      - berntb 15y ago
        Sigh, see the paragraph starting "In 1995 Video for Windows became an issue in a lawsuit Apple filed against Microsoft" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_for_Windows http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_for_Windows
      - SpookyAction 15y ago
        Im sure Bill Gates feels fine about saving Apple. The only reason Microsoft bailed out Apple was to fight the antitrust suit the U.S. government filed against it. By saving Apple, M$ could (and did) claim it still had a competitor in the market, so it wasn't a monopoly. As long as they distributed Office and IE for Mac OS, M$ could claim they weren't being anti-competitive by bundling IE with Windows and not releasing key Windows API's to 3rd party developers.
cookiecaper 15y ago
They're all suing each other. I'm sure someone will post that chart that shows all the mobile players and their largely reciprocal lawsuits amongst each other. This is standard procedure among the big companies and it's how the business works. They do this to try and get corps to pay licensing fees to each other, and the lawyers encourage it because lawyers like money. I doubt many of these are really adversarial, it's just big business in its normal course trying to get as much money out of everyone as possible, and establish a precedent that if you don't comply with demands, it will cost you even more money. This, of course, is not really relevant to these big companies anyway unless one of these cases establishes a harmful or undesirable precedent.
izendejas 15y ago
These are the same guys that have copied Dieder Ram's designs over the last decade. So I guess it's okay to "take inspiration" from other products, but not copy directly? Either that, or this is a non-issue and Apple just wants to keep their lawyers busy. (I just wasted 5 mins as I believe it's the latter.)
- arron61 15y ago
  Yes thank you. If we need a picture.. http://theplanninglab.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/01/16/ramsive.jpg http://theplanninglab.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/...
nickconfer 15y ago
I honestly have to disagree. I remember the day the iPhone was announced. There was nothing like it. Touch screen phones, yes. Apps on phones yes.. but nothing quite like the iPhone. They truly innovated there, and there are some companies ripping them off. Note that not all Android OS devices are so clearly trying to be a knock off iPhone. A lot of the most popular Android devices (like the HTC) have gone in unique directions. Some are being iPhone knock-offs though, and Apple has a right to protect their ideas as well as their brand.

Apple is lame. They claim Nokia is suing them with dumb patents and then proceed to sue others with their dumb patents...

by arron61 15y ago

Apple is lame. They claim Nokia is suing them with dumb patents and then proceed to sue others with their dumb patents...

Tycho 15y ago

Did you see the pics at the bottom? I thought I was looking at an iPhone photo until I looked a bit closer.

sukuriant 15y ago
Indeed. With the exception of the notification bar's organization, it was quite difficult to distinguish the two. I'm against overuse of patents and trademarks, but even to me these are very clearly too similar.
- dstein 15y ago
  But is putting finger-sized icons on a mobile device something that Apple "invented"? It's not exactly a new technology or concept, it's simply obvious. I recall owning an iPaq that did the same thing years before the iPhone was released. And for that matter every old fashioned telephone ever produced had finger sized icons.
  - sukuriant 15y ago
    It's not the finger-sized icons that are the issue. What makes it very similar to the iPhone are: * the general smooth, rectangular shape of the phone, including a large, center button below the screen * a color-coded section of four buttons at the bottom of the screen that take up the whole space and include "phone", icon on the left-most side. * a speaker in a thin-rectangular shape above the screen. There are a great number of small differences between them, but they are very, very similar. Compare the new Samsung phone with a regular Android UI (e.g. http://www.techwhizz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Android-2.3-Gingerbread-Using-CyanogenMod-6.1.png http://www.techwhizz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Android-... (from http://www.techwhizz.com/feel-android-2-3-gingerbread-cyanogenmod-6-1-tweak/ http://www.techwhizz.com/feel-android-2-3-gingerbread-cyanog... ) and notice that, while the two user interfaces accomplish similar things and both use large buttons, the Samsung UI is incredibly and inappropriately close to the iPhone's, especially if Apple has made a point of claiming that precise format as their own.

jameskilton 15y ago

Frankly, those images are rather damning. The devices and the interface are too similar for Apple to just let this slide. If anything I would say Apple has to do this to avoid setting a very dangerous precedent.

cookiecaper 15y ago
Those images are not that damning imo. Both phones are rectangular and thin. Does Apple have a monopoly on rectangular, thin phones? My G1 would look the same if it were thinner. Does Apple have a monopoly on icons arranged in a grid? If so, the Windows desktop and many other interfaces are at risk.
- cooldeal 15y ago
  Even Windows 3.1 is at risk! http://img.zdnet.com/techDirectory/_PROGMAN.GIF http://img.zdnet.com/techDirectory/_PROGMAN.GIF
  - HelloBeautiful 15y ago
    Apple did sue Microsoft over Windows interface. I wonder how Bill Gates feels nowadays for saving Apple, when Steve Jobs got back. Without MS moral support - promising future releases of Mac Office, and a ton of money - Apple would've probably went bust than.
    - berntb 15y ago
      Sigh, see the paragraph starting "In 1995 Video for Windows became an issue in a lawsuit Apple filed against Microsoft" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_for_Windows http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_for_Windows
    - SpookyAction 15y ago
      Im sure Bill Gates feels fine about saving Apple. The only reason Microsoft bailed out Apple was to fight the antitrust suit the U.S. government filed against it. By saving Apple, M$ could (and did) claim it still had a competitor in the market, so it wasn't a monopoly. As long as they distributed Office and IE for Mac OS, M$ could claim they weren't being anti-competitive by bundling IE with Windows and not releasing key Windows API's to 3rd party developers.

cookiecaper 15y ago

They're all suing each other. I'm sure someone will post that chart that shows all the mobile players and their largely reciprocal lawsuits amongst each other. This is standard procedure among the big companies and it's how the business works. They do this to try and get corps to pay licensing fees to each other, and the lawyers encourage it because lawyers like money. I doubt many of these are really adversarial, it's just big business in its normal course trying to get as much money out of everyone as possible, and establish a precedent that if you don't comply with demands, it will cost you even more money. This, of course, is not really relevant to these big companies anyway unless one of these cases establishes a harmful or undesirable precedent.

izendejas 15y ago

These are the same guys that have copied Dieder Ram's designs over the last decade. So I guess it's okay to "take inspiration" from other products, but not copy directly? Either that, or this is a non-issue and Apple just wants to keep their lawyers busy. (I just wasted 5 mins as I believe it's the latter.)

arron61 15y ago
Yes thank you. If we need a picture.. http://theplanninglab.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/01/16/ramsive.jpg http://theplanninglab.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/...

nickconfer 15y ago

I honestly have to disagree. I remember the day the iPhone was announced. There was nothing like it. Touch screen phones, yes. Apps on phones yes.. but nothing quite like the iPhone. They truly innovated there, and there are some companies ripping them off. Note that not all Android OS devices are so clearly trying to be a knock off iPhone. A lot of the most popular Android devices (like the HTC) have gone in unique directions. Some are being iPhone knock-offs though, and Apple has a right to protect their ideas as well as their brand.