4 ms·
Just to remove all doubts about whether the jury was smoking crack or not, this phone is found to be infringing the iPhone's design patents: http://androidspin
by esolyt 14y ago
Just to remove all doubts about whether the jury was smoking crack or not, this phone is found to be infringing the iPhone's design patents:
http://androidspin.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/samsung-galaxy-s-epic-4g-sprint-front-landscape.jpg http://androidspin.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/samsung-ga...
- mbreese 14y agoClose the keyboard, then look at it. The jury, apparently, decided what their criteria were for infringement and then applied those criteria to all of the phones. The extra fact that this model had a keyboard wasn't one of the criteria. Let's not assume that we have the whole story behind the way the jury decided anything, one way or the other.
- eridius 14y agoAlso, I thought the design of the home screen (a grid of icons with labels) also had something to do with it? Both of the linked phones have a grid very much like the iPhone.
- magicalist 14y agoicon grids predate the iphone, of course (windows mobile, palm pilot, newton?). I think Apple's claims were more specific, dealing with particular icons, colors, and the favorite apps at the bottom.
- DanBC 14y agoDid 16x16 (and then 32x32, and etc etc) icons get patents? Because someone, somewhere, lost a lot of money - and I got consistently sized icons for many years. EDIT: This isn't as ridiculous as it sounds. See this 2002 article. BT registered a patent in 1976 for "double clicking hyperlinks" (or somesuch), and then in 2000 they realised that they owned this patent, and a bunch of people were clicking hyperlinks on the WWW, and they started suing people. They lost. (http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/BT-patent-case-raises-e-commerce-planning-issues http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/BT-patent-case-raises-...) (http://eupat.ffii.org/pikta/xrani/hyperlink/ http://eupat.ffii.org/pikta/xrani/hyperlink/)
- vacri 14y agofavorite apps at the bottom Quicklaunch bars certainly predate the iphone
- regularfry 14y agoSo did Windows 3.1.
- danielweber 14y agoThanks. While I'd like to see Apple gets it teeth kicked in as much as the next guy, the amateur analyses on HN about why the jury is obviously wrong are pretty frustrating to deal with.
- ncallaway 14y agoTrue, though the professional analysis from groklaw is a pretty good read.
- surrealize 14y agoAside from the keyboard (which is significant IMO), this phone differs from the iphone in that: * this phone has curved (not flat) ends * four HW buttons on the front (rather than one) * it's black with a black border (has any iphone had that? Usually the iphone border is in a contrasting color) * has a big "samsung" on the front It's pretty distinct, hardware-design wise.
- hahainternet 14y agoFrom what I've read so far, the very existence of a full display and a bezel surrounding the front of the phone may have been sufficient in this case for damages. That's obviously crazy, but that appears to have been criteria used.
- ncallaway 14y agoI'm reminded of an old joke: "In Soviet Russia reasonable and appropriate considerations are made before awarding 1B in damages based on vaguely similar designs".
- nitrogen 14y agoI purchased that exact phone, exactly because it wasn't an iPhone, had a keyboard (very important for mobile ssh), and ran Android. I knew exactly what I was buying, no confusion whatsoever. The presence of a keyboard is a significant differentiator between that phone and Apple's products.