Apple - Samsung Trial

[Axxer]

Apple won big and will get $1.05 billion along with greater patent power, while Samsung will lose patent power because, according to the ruling, they have a monopoly involving UMTS. Samsung got basically nothing good out of the case.

That's a pretty big ruling. Apple has much more firepower now to attack Android with.

Of course there will be appeals, but this is nonetheless a big deal for the tech industry in the US.

EDIT: I replaced CNet's tally with the courts official tally, which just came out.

[admin89]

I love Android but i don't like SS because the galaxy series is just copy of iphone series
Docomo F-10D FTW!

[MayImilae]

Shame that they went with Apple on this one. Samsung could have very well copied them, but it doesn't even matter. It's how the system works. An innovator makes something new, everyone else copies to reach where the innovator is, and then the innovator makes something new again and it repeats. Actually having two innovators going at each other is extremely rare (so rare the last one off the top of my head is Edison-Tesla), and even then the innovators copy eachother and those around them as much as innovating themselves. Copying is just part of culture. The Mona Lisa was built on centuries of painting developments going all the way back to cave paintings. Even the iPhone has nothing new to it, it's just a collection of things other people did, just new technology made it possible to put it together and sell it with Apple's amazing capabilities. Even if someone were to 100% clone the iPhone, it doesn't give them the Apple reputation, it doesn't give them the tons of work that Apple put in to understand what worked and what didn't, and it doesn't help them in creating the next big thing. All it means is that they are aiming for where the puck is now, instead of where it will be. The way you deal with copying is by constantly innovating: something Apple should be good at. By taking away copiers, Apple has less incentive to innovate. This is a bad ruling for everyone.

As for the copying thing. Seriously, they were fighting over rounded rectangles, how thin it was, and the color of the faceplate. What was Samsung going to do? Make it thick, ugly, and sharp? Most of the iPhone's visual design is based on function, not fashion. Watching this trial was like watching 7 year olds fighting.

[Anti-Ultimate]

like i give a shit, as long as the Samsung products are good, people will buy them.

[NaturalViolence]

Quote:Actually having two innovators going at each other is extremely rare (so rare the last one off the top of my head is Edison-Tesla)

I guess you haven't kept up with the last century of corporate rivalries then. In terms of individuals inventing stuff I don't really count the edison/tesla rivalry because tesla was actually the first person to invent most of the things that he was credited with inventing. Whereas edison was usually credited with an invention because he was the first person to patent it, even if he stole it from someone else or reinvented something that had already been invented decades before by someone who never patented it. These days engineers making major inventions almost always work for a big company that then owns the patent for the invention.

On-topic:
The entire idea of patents is bullshit anyways. It basically rewards companies for being lazy and goes against the entire point of capitalism by stomping out competition through the legal system rather than the free market.

But I'm not surprised at this ruling, not at all.