5 ms·

This looks like a legal nightmare. I mean there are all kinds of protections of visual thinks like e.g. design patents. I would be highly surprised if this do

This looks like a legal nightmare. I mean there are all kinds of protections of visual thinks like e.g. design patents. I would be highly surprised if this doesn't violate at least one or two apple hold still valid design patents or other protection mechanisms. Because lets be honest design/visual wise it's less iPad/iOs inspired but a bland clone of the iOs design on iPad with some/many minor but in the grater picture irrelevant changes.

SmileyJames 6y ago
It's a Chinese company
- twelvechairs 6y ago
  > We are based in Beijing and California. from their 'about' page
  - Grustaf 6y ago
    They can still be a 100% Chinese company.
runawaybottle 6y ago
A bland ios clone is still miles ahead of any ui the other distros have.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
amelius 6y ago
It's a user interface, therefore it has to be familiar. What if cars all had the steering wheel in a different location?
- ben_w 6y ago
  Clone is a subset of familiar — you don’t need to call your story about a wizard school “Barry Trotter and the Alchemist’s Gem” just to set your audience’s expectations, for example. (I’m not a lawyer so have no idea if this JingOS legally OK or not, but there is a difference between familiar and clone).
- dathinab 6y ago
  Design patents can not be applied to purely functional aspects, so no you can keep you wheel round and on the for your country correct side. But you can have a design patent for the "looks and feel" of your headsup display to some degree. You can't make it cover what is one the display or that important parts are highlighted. But you can potentially cover the color pallet and how exactly you arrange information of the same not high importance level. I.e. in context of JingOs the way they cluster settings especially combined with the used color schema and similar aspects are very likely covered by design patents. Similar that notifications are a list of swipe-able settings in a box can't be covered by design patents, but that it has that graish color with that level of transparence, rounded corners, and similar might very well be covered. I personally don't like design patents but they are a thing which exists. Lastly the copy is so close that it might not just cause conflicts with design patents but also with copyright on the visual parts (not the underlying code!) of iOs.
  - amelius 6y ago
    You are probably right, but all these constraints are going to make old people and visually impaired people confused when switching to a different brand. Would it be allowed for a vendor to add a button which makes the interface looks like a competitor's interface?
- Grustaf 6y ago
  Windows is much more different from iOS than this. So is KDE, ChromeOS etc. Even Android is. This is a straight copy, why pretend otherwise?
- zepto 6y ago
  Android doesn’t look like this kind of exact knockoff, but somehow it’s usable.
weare138 6y ago
Not a lawyer here but have UI design patents ever held up in court? All modern UI is derivative in some way. Apple lost a case to Microsoft on similar grounds. >The court ruled that, "Apple cannot get patent-like protection for the idea of a graphical user interface, or the idea of a desktop metaphor [under copyright law]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Microsoft_Corp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Micros....
- Grustaf 6y ago
  Didn't they win the billion dollar lawsuit when Samsung copied iOS almost as blatantly as this?
  - thrill 6y ago
    That's the same suit that Apple claimed dominion over rounded corners, too, isn't it?
  - weare138 6y ago
    That case was a huge convoluted mess. If I understand it correctly the UI patent claims were rejected and the case came down to 3 hardware design patents, D618,677, D593,087, and D504,889. But the case is so involved you damn near need a law degree just to follow it.
- dathinab 6y ago
  Note that Apple was able to use their slide to unlock design patent and that Apple in the linked curt case tired to "get patent-like protection for the idea of a graphical user interface [..]". In this case it's not about the idea about a GUI but the very specific way the GUI was made wrt. non-functional aspects of the GUI. And even if there is no enforceable design patent there is still copyright and trademark protection. E.g. look at the settings icon which is basically screams "lets change the settings icons just enough to not be a copyright infringement". That icon is trademarked by Apple and the JingOs variant has still quite many of the points which define the Apple trademark, enough to open potential for a case. (They have 3 connection from the gear ring to the center at the exact same position, a "dot" at the center, a inner ring (but just one color instead of an gear) and the gear background color doesn't stretch to the sides of the icon (I have no idea why they didn't change that, it would be more different and look better), they also replaced light silver with white. Anyway I would guess a trademark case for this detail has a good chance, especially given that this icon looks different enough to the other icons to not fit in, making it super clear that they somewhat forcefully wanted to make it look as much like Apple as possible. Instead of just using similar visual clues).
viktorcode 6y ago
This does, but there won't be anyone using this distro for commercial purposes outside of China, so IP rights won' be enforced.
hjek 6y ago
Apple has a patent on scrollbars. There's no avoiding that legal nightmare.
- sonthonax 6y ago
  It probably won't be sold using large distributors in the USA, and Apple won't have a legal case in China. In a way, the USA brought this upon themselves. Global intellectual property rights are prerequisite for international trade in services. But they also require international concorde on what they are. America has shot itself in the foot by diverging from international standards of copyright and intellectual property. And it's really myopic: for example, Disney will marginally increase the value of their IP holdings by lobbying for a perpetual license to Mickey Mouse; but it will also preclude Disney from ever trading their IP on equal terms with China.

SmileyJames 6y ago

It's a Chinese company

twelvechairs 6y ago
> We are based in Beijing and California. from their 'about' page
- Grustaf 6y ago
  They can still be a 100% Chinese company.

runawaybottle 6y ago

A bland ios clone is still miles ahead of any ui the other distros have.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

amelius 6y ago

It's a user interface, therefore it has to be familiar. What if cars all had the steering wheel in a different location?

ben_w 6y ago
Clone is a subset of familiar — you don’t need to call your story about a wizard school “Barry Trotter and the Alchemist’s Gem” just to set your audience’s expectations, for example. (I’m not a lawyer so have no idea if this JingOS legally OK or not, but there is a difference between familiar and clone).
dathinab 6y ago
Design patents can not be applied to purely functional aspects, so no you can keep you wheel round and on the for your country correct side. But you can have a design patent for the "looks and feel" of your headsup display to some degree. You can't make it cover what is one the display or that important parts are highlighted. But you can potentially cover the color pallet and how exactly you arrange information of the same not high importance level. I.e. in context of JingOs the way they cluster settings especially combined with the used color schema and similar aspects are very likely covered by design patents. Similar that notifications are a list of swipe-able settings in a box can't be covered by design patents, but that it has that graish color with that level of transparence, rounded corners, and similar might very well be covered. I personally don't like design patents but they are a thing which exists. Lastly the copy is so close that it might not just cause conflicts with design patents but also with copyright on the visual parts (not the underlying code!) of iOs.
- amelius 6y ago
  You are probably right, but all these constraints are going to make old people and visually impaired people confused when switching to a different brand. Would it be allowed for a vendor to add a button which makes the interface looks like a competitor's interface?
Grustaf 6y ago
Windows is much more different from iOS than this. So is KDE, ChromeOS etc. Even Android is. This is a straight copy, why pretend otherwise?
zepto 6y ago
Android doesn’t look like this kind of exact knockoff, but somehow it’s usable.

weare138 6y ago

Not a lawyer here but have UI design patents ever held up in court? All modern UI is derivative in some way. Apple lost a case to Microsoft on similar grounds. >The court ruled that, "Apple cannot get patent-like protection for the idea of a graphical user interface, or the idea of a desktop metaphor [under copyright law]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Microsoft_Corp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Micros....

Grustaf 6y ago
Didn't they win the billion dollar lawsuit when Samsung copied iOS almost as blatantly as this?
- thrill 6y ago
  That's the same suit that Apple claimed dominion over rounded corners, too, isn't it?
- weare138 6y ago
  That case was a huge convoluted mess. If I understand it correctly the UI patent claims were rejected and the case came down to 3 hardware design patents, D618,677, D593,087, and D504,889. But the case is so involved you damn near need a law degree just to follow it.
dathinab 6y ago
Note that Apple was able to use their slide to unlock design patent and that Apple in the linked curt case tired to "get patent-like protection for the idea of a graphical user interface [..]". In this case it's not about the idea about a GUI but the very specific way the GUI was made wrt. non-functional aspects of the GUI. And even if there is no enforceable design patent there is still copyright and trademark protection. E.g. look at the settings icon which is basically screams "lets change the settings icons just enough to not be a copyright infringement". That icon is trademarked by Apple and the JingOs variant has still quite many of the points which define the Apple trademark, enough to open potential for a case. (They have 3 connection from the gear ring to the center at the exact same position, a "dot" at the center, a inner ring (but just one color instead of an gear) and the gear background color doesn't stretch to the sides of the icon (I have no idea why they didn't change that, it would be more different and look better), they also replaced light silver with white. Anyway I would guess a trademark case for this detail has a good chance, especially given that this icon looks different enough to the other icons to not fit in, making it super clear that they somewhat forcefully wanted to make it look as much like Apple as possible. Instead of just using similar visual clues).

viktorcode 6y ago

This does, but there won't be anyone using this distro for commercial purposes outside of China, so IP rights won' be enforced.

hjek 6y ago

Apple has a patent on scrollbars. There's no avoiding that legal nightmare.

sonthonax 6y ago
It probably won't be sold using large distributors in the USA, and Apple won't have a legal case in China. In a way, the USA brought this upon themselves. Global intellectual property rights are prerequisite for international trade in services. But they also require international concorde on what they are. America has shot itself in the foot by diverging from international standards of copyright and intellectual property. And it's really myopic: for example, Disney will marginally increase the value of their IP holdings by lobbying for a perpetual license to Mickey Mouse; but it will also preclude Disney from ever trading their IP on equal terms with China.