Apple and Samsung have been interlocked in a fierce patent war which doesn’t seem to be subsiding any time soon. A while ago, it was reported that a UK judge had called Samsung’s Galaxy Tab not ‘as cool’ as iPad and thus, not an infringement. Apple filed an appeal against it. And lost again.
The company’s obsession with having its ’rounded edges’ and similar other fundamental design elements patented has attracted a lot of criticism. And for all the right reasons.
When Apple lost the design patent battle for its iPad in a UK court earlier, it filed an appeal with the Court of Appeals. During the course of the case’s review, three judges reconsidered the available evidence. Interestingly, one of the three judges has clearly mentioned how merely citing the design patents that Apple owns doesn’t mean Samsung has infringed them.
He said, “Infringement of a registered design does not involve any question of whether there was copying: the issue is simply whether the accused design is too close to the registered design according to the tests laid down in the law. So this case is all about, and only about, Apple’s registered design and the Samsung products.”
The Court of Appeals didn’t find sufficient resemblance between Apple’s registered design and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab due to which, the ruling was once again in Samsung’s favor. Apple will yet again be required to let the world know how Samsung is not a copycat, a minor payback for the damage caused to Samsung’s repute.
Samsung was naturally happy to hear the verdict. A spokesperson for the company said, “We continue to believe that Apple was not the first to design a tablet with a rectangular shape and rounded corners and that the origins of Apple’s registered design features can be found in numerous examples of prior art. Should Apple continue to make excessive legal claims in other countries based on such generic designs, innovation in the industry could be harmed and consumer choice unduly limited.”
Source: BBC
Courtesy: Engadget
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