Apple Blocks Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in EU

[Zhao]

Okay, I didn't see this one coming. German press agency dpa is reporting that Apple has been granted a preliminary injunction barring Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 from being distributed in the entire European Union except for The Netherlands, over a design patent. Competition at its finest, people, and this is clearly in the interest of consumers. I'm ashamed to be European. Instant update: Two 'short hearings' will take place this week in The Hague, in which Apple demands an injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (Wednesday) and the Galaxy S smartphones (Thursday). I will try to report on the outcomes of these two cases as quickly as possible. I'm hoping my legal system isn't as idiotic as that of Duesseldorf. At the same time, Samsung has filed for a 'bottom procedure' in The Netherlands against Apple, which is a lengthy court case where all details will be taken into account (as opposed to a short hearing which is just to get a quick, temporary ruling). Update II: As Mueller points out in an updated version of his post, this isn't about patents. This injunction is based on a Community Design, which is a sort of EU-wide trademark. The Community Design is literally just that - a few drawings of a generic device. These drawings (Community Design 000181607-0001) could fit basically anything to my untrained eye, but alas. Update III: From the Community Design directive: "A Community design shall not subsist in features of appearance of a product which are solely dictated by its technical function." Really now. Update IV: I'm browsing though Apple's Community Designs (enter 'Apple' at owner), and they have at least a thousand of them - the search results are limited to 1000. This is absolutely idiotic - while some of them are clearly Apple products, most of them are just generic designs, and in fact, Apple seems to iterate their Community Designs - starting with basic shapes, moving all the way up to photos of actual devices, with each iteration being a separate, enforceable filing! Many are truly and utterly generic - take a look at this one, or this, or this (a stretched black rectangle ffs!), or this (a folder icon!). Apple can sue pretty much ANY product maker with this. This is like a slumbering and unknown version of the USPTO! Update V: It gets worse. Fill in any company's name. Hilarity will ensue. Update VI: Samsung has responded. It's crazy. Samsung was not notified about any of this, and consequently, did not even have the opportunity to defend itself. The judge just granted this injuction when Apple asked for it - no questions asked. What the heck is going on here?!

Source

Really absurd

[GreyGeek]

Re: Apple Blocks Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in EU

Apple isn't going after anything but the 10" competitors because they consider the 7" and less to be "tweeny".

It's just another example of a corrupt corporation using the law as a paid leg-breaker to suppress competition. Pure Al Capone.

However, at least 10% of the reviews of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 at Amazon are not good. A better 10" is the Acer A500, for $450.

Take a look at the Acer A500 tablet with 10" display (which Apple hasn't attack, afaik). $466 at Amazon.
Key Features

* 10.1” HD Multi-Touch Display: (1280 x 800) resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio
* NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 Dual Core Mobile Processor
* 1GB DDR2 Memory
* NVIDIA® GeForce® GPU
* eMMC: 32GB on board
* MicroSD memory card up to 32GB
* Dolby® Mobile Technology
* Dual Analog Microphone
* Dual Speaker
* 802.11b/g/n Wireless(802.11n 2.4GHz only)
* Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR
* 1- Micro USB 2.0 Port
* 1- USB 2.0 Port
* 1- Micro HDMI™ Out (support Dual Display)
* 5MP Rear Facing Camerawith Auto Focus and single LED flash
* 2MP Front Facing Camera
* Sensors:G-Sensor, E-Compass, L-Sensor, Gyro-meter
* Rechargeable Lithium-ion polymer Battery
* Up to 8-hours battery life

[Goeroeboeroe]

Re: Apple Blocks Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in EU

I found an interesting article about this case. Never heard of Community Design before, but it certainly doesn't look good:
http://www.osnews.com/story/25056/Th..._USPTO_Was_Bad

I don't know exactly why, but the ban on the Samsung tablet is lifted for every country, except Germany.
The reason there wasn't a ban for the Netherlands is Apple had a separate trial, in which they ask for much more then they asked in Germany. If Apple wins this, it's catastrophic for every kind of innovation or fair competition.

In the Netherlands Apple asks to forbid selling Galaxy Ace, S, SII, Tab (7 inch), Tab 10.1 en 10.1v. They also name Gio, Nexus, 551, Europa, Apollo and the Mini.
I'm no lawyer, but as I understand it Apple asks to completely forbid Samsung to sell anything with Android.
Apple tries this by using the Community Design, patents and 'normal' design. They use at least three patents that are very wide:
http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publi...C&locale=en_EP
https://data.epo.org/publication-ser...48&ki=B1&cc=EP
http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publi...=&locale=en_EP

Apple even asks the judge to rule Samsung has to write all shops to return their products. If a shop doesn't do this, they can be prosecuted by Apple too. This is a very extreme thing Apple tries. I can't remember any case in the Netherlands a simple shop was threatened this way.
If Apple wins this, I guess they'll try to get this ban in the whole EU and maybe on more android (or other OS) products.

[dibl]

Re: Apple Blocks Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in EU

"the United States Patent and Trademark Office has just met its match when it comes to incompetence. Amazing."

Indeed.

Very interesting, and scary, article -- thank you for posting it.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Apple Blocks Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in EU

Just like in the US, the real question in these court cases is just how corruptible the legal and political system is in these countries. The Apple "community designs" are so broad and inclusive that if granted the precedent could be used to block the sale of any 10" Netbook.

Apple is attacking so many corporations that I have no doubt that they will each pull out their patent portfolio and teams of lawyers and sue Apple for peelings and seeds. Now that Google owns Motorola I suspect that Motorola's lawsuit against Google will be dropped and Google will wheel out the big deck guns and begin lobbing broadsides at Apple, Microsoft and Oracle.

Then maybe, just maybe, people will wake up and see how utterly corrupt the US patent situations is and bring this whole software patent mess to a permanent end by restoring software's definition as a mathematical concept that cannot be patented.

[dibl]

Re: Apple Blocks Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in EU

Right, GG.

Or, I'd be satisfied with software source code defined as a "work of authorship", subject to a copyright. Like a book or a magazine article. "Fair use", and all of that. Of course, holding it proprietary would kind of take the issue off the table, if it were subject to copyright law.

[Goeroeboeroe]

Re: Apple Blocks Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in EU

Now I understand why The Netherlands has the honour of a separate trial. The import of all Samsung products for all of the EU goes via Holland. And Apple asks for a ban on import, export, etc., etc. If they succeed, Samsung can't sell anything any more in the EU. And if they win this case, I see no reason why not to attack other brands, android, etc.
@GreyGeek: it's not only for 10 inch tablets, it's also for 7 inch, several smartphones, etc. As far as I understand it it's for (almost) all their tablets, smartphones, etc.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Apple Blocks Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in EU

mmm... Apple apparently refiled with more demands.

Apple is rapidly really competing with Microsoft for the title of "Most Evil Corporation".

[bsniadajewski]

Re: Apple Blocks Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in EU

I read somewhere that the ban was blocked by a German court (I think) because of some questionable evidence (pictures of the Galaxy Tab distorted to makg it look more like the iPad.

[Goeroeboeroe]

Re: Apple Blocks Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in EU

That's right. But as far as I understand it, this is a kind of 'trial' (it's more a joke) the accuser doesn't have anything to prove. Even more ridiculous: the accused doesn't even have to know there's a trial. That's what happened in Germany. Here in the Netherlands it's more or less a normal trial.
It's a bit mainstream news here at the moment.
The website that revealed the wrong pictures has put some pictures online. The site is in Dutch, but some parts are in English.
Real pictures so everybody can judge for themselves:
http://webwereld.nl/gallery/107619/i...--foto-s-.html

The wrong pictures Apples used in the German trial. The picture is about halfway the page and the text near the picture is English (it's the second picture, not the first):
http://webwereld.nl/nieuws/107599/ap...n-samsung.html

The Dutch site Webwereld looked also at the evidence in the Dutch trial. They could only compare one picture, and that was also manipulated by Apple:
http://blog.webwereld.nl/wp-content/...laxy_final.jpg
The two phones on the left are what Apple put in the subpoena (Is this the correct term? The official papers Apple gave to the judge.) On the right is the real format of the Samsung phone.

The whole article:
http://webwereld.nl/nieuws/107652/oo...ndse-zaak.html
But that's in Dutch. And I'm afraid Dutch has one small problem: not everybody seems to be able to read it
There's little more interesting in the article besides the wrong pictures. The reason Webwereld couldn't compare other pictures is they weren't in the official subpoena, but in supplementary papers.

Strange. I can't imagine Apple makes two times the same error, one should say this has to be deliberately. On the other hand: this is so stupid, everybody can expect somebody finds this out. So I really don't understand the reason behind this.

[MoonRise]

Re: Apple Blocks Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in EU

Yes, I have been folowig this quite a bit. I agree with GG that Apple evidently wants M$'s title of most evil, even more than Oracle. I have the Acer a500. I've used a I pad. Nothing alike in any way. I've seen Sansungs @ the stores. Doesn't look like an I pad to me or even functions like one. All laws are anti competative. Truethfully of all the companies out there involved with this behavior, I'll stick with Google and Android.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Apple Blocks Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in EU

....
But that's in Dutch. And I'm afraid Dutch has one small problem: not everybody seems to be able to read it
....

I used Google's Translate tool and was able to read the entire article and understand it.

[bsniadajewski]

Re: Apple Blocks Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in EU

But that's in Dutch. And I'm afraid Dutch has one small problem: not everybody seems to be able to read it

That's a problem for any language, even English.

I'd also agree that Apple is just looking for a monopoly.

[Goeroeboeroe]

Re: Apple Blocks Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in EU

Didn't use Google Translate for a long time. Tried it. Translate remarkably well for an automatic process, much better as in the past.
There's one very funny mistake: they translate the name of the Dutch site 'Webwereld' that revealed the manipulation into the name of the Apple-fansite 'Macworld'. Don't think Macworld can appreciate this

[Goeroeboeroe]

Re: Apple Blocks Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in EU

A small update. Samsung refers, among other things, to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) for prior art.
The judge is going to rule on the fifteenth of september. He has said that, if he forbids import, selling, etc., the ban is not going to be effective before the 15th of October.
It has been more or less mainstream news here, and I've a strong impression the sale of Samsung has grown a lot the last weeks, because it seems a lot of people think something like 'hey, Apple says it's the same as an ipad'.
If Samsung wins this, I think they should be very grateful to Apple for a whole lot of free commercials.

Edit: forgot the url:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20...e-patent-spat/