Courts Side with Apple to Block Samsung Galaxy Nexus

[Elimentals]

Courts Side with Apple to Block Samsung Galaxy Nexus

First the Galaxy Tab 10.1, now the Galaxy Nexus. Apple has, for the second time in two weeks, convinced the court to bar the sale of a competing Samsung product for patent infringement.

U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh ruled in favor of Apple late today, granting a preliminary injunction against Samsung's Google-designed smartphone. Koh found that the Nexus is "no more than colorably different" and, as such, infringes on Apple's "slide to unlock" patent. In her ruling Koh argues:

Although Samsung will necessarily be harmed by being forced to withdraw its product from the market before the merits can be determined after a full trial, the harm faced by Apple absent an injunction is greater. Apple's interest in enforcing its patent rights is particularly strong because it has presented a strong case on the merits. As discussed above, Apple has shown a likelihood of prevailing on the merits of all four of its asserted patents. Apple has further shown a likelihood of irreparable harm attributable to Samsung's infringement of the '604 Patent if the injunction does not issue. Samsung, by contrast, does not present any evidence of what hardship it will suffer if the injunction issues.

Koh issued a similar ruling last week when she found that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 violated of another Apple patent and barred its sale as well. The ruling goes into effect once Apple ponies up a $95.6 million bond to cover Samsung's projected losses should the ruling be overturned.

Samsung is expected to appeal the ruling, especially given that Google recently designated the device as its ICS flagship model and has already begun distributing it to developers ahead of Jelly Bean's SDK release.

Source Gizmodo, also see The Verge or Engadget

Holy mother of Poo, this one is a bit far out. I think Apple just fked up, like in big. Reason for this view is its Stock Android and that means they looking at Google. Apple better find a new notification system else I can promise you revenge will be dealt and it aint gonna be pretty. See http://www.google.com/patents?id=r9DqAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

Its not like its going to stop Android sales either as its just limiting choice, people will still be able to get S3 and One X phones. If above notification patent gets issued and goes to court Apple will look at a total loss of sales.

Talk about pissing on a bee hive. (Even looking at the comments on above 3 sites tells me this was not a good move)

 

[marine1]

Apple must DIE !!

 

[CAPS LOCK]

What's next? Icons on a tablet screen going to infringe on copyright too! Then the on/off switch, maybe the volume rocker, how about the charging port while we're at it. It's Capitalism at it's grandest, win some lose some.

 

[Elimentals]

Sorry for my direct words:

But this is why I absolutely ****ing hate Software patents.

Universal search: Google did this to the desktop way before iPhones where even a fart in Steve's brain, so not something new
Slide to unlock: been on millions of phones before the iPhone, I would say yes if it was a slide that looked the same but come on a circle with directional slides is no where close.
Actionable linking: Hello ever heard of hyperlinks? I mean get real this is not even close to an original idea.
Touch Screen word suggestion: Auto fill anyone ever heard of that? WTF? **** even my spell checker does this how is this original?

 

[bxm]

Patent troll? Nope, Apple = patent dr*l.

 

[Creag]

The more Apple continues this unholy crusade of theirs, the more determined I am to avoid their products.

 

[Syphonx]

The more Apple continues this unholy crusade of theirs, the more determined I am to avoid their products.

+100

 

[Glue]

The more Apple continues this unholy crusade of theirs, the more determined I am to avoid their products.

+100

 

[kingrob]

The more Apple continues this unholy crusade of theirs, the more determined I am to avoid their products.

+ 1000000

 

[SmartKit]

The more Apple continues this unholy crusade of theirs, the more determined I am to avoid their products.

Thing is, if a Samsung, Motorola, Google alliance manage a ban on iPhone sales Apple is fscked as there is no alternative (as was pointed out the is still the One X, S3, etc in the USA for the Nexus). I say make them pay!

 

[Elimentals]

Well I guess we almost completed the Apple cycle so should not be long....

http://postimage.org/image/inp8poalr/

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Bad move by Apple.

Now the Koreans (and others) will look at alternative technologies, which might actually outperform apple's current hardware...

 

[reactor_sa]

The more Apple continues this unholy crusade of theirs, the more determined I am to avoid their products.

+1000

 

[reactor_sa]

Thing is, if a Samsung, Motorola, Google alliance manage a ban on iPhone sales Apple is fscked as there is no alternative (as was pointed out the is still the One X, S3, etc in the USA for the Nexus). I say make them pay!

If the iphone was banned I would be so happy I would die.
It would be so IN YOUR FACE, APPLE!

 

[Maverick Jester]

Has no one noticed that the SAME judge is currently granting Apple's Android-banning injunctions? Two in the past week? Fishy stuff...

Anyway- I think Apple made a big mistake with this one... Here's hoping Google take them on.

 

[Maverick Jester]

Interesting... Seems like Apple didn't patent slide to unlock first

 

[Elimentals]

Seems that the key here is the search Patent.

The ruling spans over 101 pages. Here are a few select quotes:

On the likely infringement and likely validity of all four asserted patents:

• "In sum, Apple has shown that claims 6 and 19 of the '604 [Siri] Patent are likely both valid and infringed. Apple has therefore shown a likelihood of prevailing on the merits of the '604 Patent."
• "In sum, Apple has shown a likelihood of establishing both infringement and validity."
• "Accordingly, Apple has shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its '647 [data tapping] Patent claim."
• "Accordingly, Apple has met its burden of establishing that the '721 [slide-to-unlock] Patent is likely infringed by the Galaxy Nexus, and that the '721 Patent will likely withstand a validity challenge at trial."
• "Accordingly, Apple has shown that it is likely to succeed on the merits at trial in its claims that the Samsung Galaxy Nexus infringes claims 18, 19, and 27 of the '172 [autocorrect] Patent."

On irreparable harm:

• "The Court finds that the full extent of these losses would likely be unascertainable, difficult to calculate, and irreparable."

On the ability of Siri to drive demand:

• "The Court is persuaded by the evidence in the record that the ’604 unified search functionality drives consumer demand in a way that affects substantial market share. Even accepting Samsung's argument that the intelligent voice-recognition aspect of Siri, as advertised, also contributes to consumer interest in the iPhone 4S, Apple has shown that the '604 Patented feature is core to Siri's functionality and is thus a but-for driver of demand for Siri. Accordingly, the Court finds that Apple has adequately established the requisite causal nexus between Samsung's alleged infringement of the '604 Patent and Apple’s risk of suffering irreparable harm."

Can read more about it over at FOSS Patents

 

[Maverick Jester]

Seems that the key here is the search Patent.


[/LIST]

Can read more about it over at FOSS Patents

So the same Siri that Apple didn't own until 2010? I'm not too clued up on the patent law in the US other than that it is completely useless, but do you have details on the '604 patent they refer to? That Apple could have a patent granted without citing an original patent (re slide to unlock) just says it all...

 

[Maddmatt]

The patents are based on Siri? So this is based on features that Android has had long before Siri existed? Damn, hope they hit Apple back hard. A ban on iPhones would do a hell of a lot more damage to Apple than a ban on a single phone does to Samsung.

 

[Elimentals]

So the same Siri that Apple didn't own until 2010? I'm not too clued up on the patent law in the US other than that it is completely useless, but do you have details on the '604 patent they refer to? That Apple could have a patent granted without citing an original patent (re slide to unlock) just says it all...

The patent in question was filed by Apple back in 2004 and do not claim to be for mobile only its a general claim..

The reason for the block is because Apple claim they use Siri as a prime feature to sell the phones. Its the prime sales feature status of Siri that cause the injunction, without that claim it would have been sales as normal till the ruling.

What is kind of interesting is that the patent was filed a couple of days after Google's desktop search application was released. In short, its Google's own anti patent stance they had at the start that is biting em now.