Apple suffered yet another setback today in their war with Samsung, their renewed motion for a permanent injunction in US against some of Samsungs' older smartphones, which was granted after an appeal following the denied injunction in December 2012, was again denied. The denial was upheld mainly because the judge feels "Samsung's competition is, for the most part, lawful, and Apple cannot obtain an injunction only because it is harmed by lawful forms of competition."
Although those smartphones in discussion are not sold in the US market anymore, Apple had argued that the injunction would have been important in preventing Samsung from releasing similar models in future. Nevertheless, Apple and Samsung are still able to appeal any unfavourable parts of the judgement.
On a side note, the case which this renewed motion derived from the first case filed between Apple and Samsung which started roughly 3 years ago. I feel this has been a long drawn fight and should conclude soon, although Samsung has said they will be appealing for the damages they have to pay in the previous ruling in 2012. Apart from monetary damages, the mentioned patents have been brought up countless times, and it will be unlikely that Samsung will be copying them again despite what Apple thinks.
Sources:
http://www.fosspatents.com/2014/03/setback-for-apple-us-judge-denies.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/06/us-apple-samsung-injunction-idUSBREA251JM20140306
Although those smartphones in discussion are not sold in the US market anymore, Apple had argued that the injunction would have been important in preventing Samsung from releasing similar models in future. Nevertheless, Apple and Samsung are still able to appeal any unfavourable parts of the judgement.
On a side note, the case which this renewed motion derived from the first case filed between Apple and Samsung which started roughly 3 years ago. I feel this has been a long drawn fight and should conclude soon, although Samsung has said they will be appealing for the damages they have to pay in the previous ruling in 2012. Apart from monetary damages, the mentioned patents have been brought up countless times, and it will be unlikely that Samsung will be copying them again despite what Apple thinks.
Sources:
http://www.fosspatents.com/2014/03/setback-for-apple-us-judge-denies.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/06/us-apple-samsung-injunction-idUSBREA251JM20140306
Hi Jun! Thank you for your well written posts and clearly stated opinions. You chose link to good references, and I like your format: you state the background, the problem, and your own thoughts. It's also good that you embed the videos in the blog.
ReplyDeleteIt is so frustrating, especially in this case that patent litigation gets so drawn out. I agree with you that I don't think Samsung will continue with the model and copy them in the future. In this case then, the purpose the battle is for monetary purposes and not for slowing down the growth of the competitor.
ReplyDeleteI think Apple is purely greedy in a sense that they only appeal the case of injunction but nothing else. They simply want to find any possible way to shut down the competitor, but this is not an unreasonable intend in terms of doing business. In fact, I feel like patent is the weapon in the business world rather than an innovation driver.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Apple appears pretty greedy, but it is also a reasonable move for survival. The smartphone industry is extremely competitive. Companies who fall from their dominant positions usually find it challenging to grab back their share of the pie, since consumers' opinion of them do not change for the positive as fast and easily as the negative.
DeletePerhaps we are currently at the apex of the smartphones and there is less to innovate in terms of physical design and hardware and more on software, most of which are to third party software developers with their apps. Newer categories such as the smartwatch is already manufactured by multiple manufacturers before popularity even picks up. It is unlikely to see Apple reveal any new products that will continue to wow us as it once did.
It's funny to see that, in this situation, even though Apple is essentially the winner, they are the ones who are complaining the most. I agree with your opinion in that Samsung will likely stay away from Apple's patents from now on, especially since they ended up paying $290M+ in damages. Yet, Apple is becoming unnecessarily greedy – as Rae mentioned – by trying to protect themselves indefinitely in the future.
ReplyDelete