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You're confusing trademarks with patents. Trademarks are supposed to avoid consumer confusion. In fact, in trademark lawsuits it's required that you establish t
by vibrunazo 14y ago
You're confusing trademarks with patents. Trademarks are supposed to avoid consumer confusion. In fact, in trademark lawsuits it's required that you establish that there's consumer confusion, or else you have no case. It's common on these lawsuits that consumers are interviewed and asked if they're confused by the products. Apple would've done this if they had a trademark case against Samsung. In any other IP case which isn't trademark, pointing confusion, as in the Samsung lawyer example, is just a meaningless gimmick that serves no real purpose. [1] But Apple isn't suing Samsung for trademark infringement, they're suing for patents. Which means to stop Samsung for using Apple's technological "inventions". So your argument is invalid, Apple is not trying to establish confusion. They're going specifically after Samsung simply because they're by far the biggest target. And the examples in your blog are blatant cherry-picking. [2]
[1] http://www.bonkersworld.net/obvious-similarities/ http://www.bonkersworld.net/obvious-similarities/
[2] http://www.bonkersworld.net/great-artists-steal/ http://www.bonkersworld.net/great-artists-steal/
- taligent 14y agoYou might want to do a bit of research on something called a "design patent".
- einhverfr 14y agoStill, I think a patent only reaches functional aspects. I would be just as surprised if you could patent a shade of green as if you could patent the meaning of a test result.
- taligent 14y agoDesign and functionality are interlinked. And it is pretty common to trademark colours.
- einhverfr 14y agoBut trademarks aren't a part of this lawsuit, are they? The point is that if Apple was suing under trademarks they would have done things differently, but don't appear to be doing so, probably because patents have wider protections than trademarks do. You can trademark a color in a certain context, but I doubt you can trademark the color and then enforce general ownership rights to it. After all even in more specific contexts, I seem to remember 'Gel Cel' being impermissibly generic as a trademark.
- vibrunazo 14y agoYou might want to read before posting. There are no design patents being used in the Galaxy Nexus ban. Their argument is Samsung copied "unified search".
- taligent 14y agoThe person you were replying to was talking about the Galaxy tab which did infringe on Apple's design patent.