It’s beginning to look like it will never end, as more and more news just keeps on coming with regards to ongoing Global patent feud between Apple and Samsung. It’s not surprising that this is still ongoing after all, the lawsuit of last year was never going to be the end of it all and Samsung have appealed the decision vehemently and they’re pretty sue that they have a good case for doing so as well. Let’s just hope that Samsung might still have time to make some new and interesting products while defending Apple’s attacks at the same time.
Now, we’re hearing news coming out of the Netherlands that the courts there are more inclined to side with not only Samsung, but common sense when it comes to Apple’s patented “rounder corners”. Just like the U.K. courts, the Dutch judge was not impressed with Apple’s claims that Samsung’s Galaxy Tablets infringed on their rounded corners and deemed no infringement at all. In a statement – translated from Dutch – the court had this to say:
Today the Hague district court judgment in a case of Samsung against Apple. At issue in this case is whether the design of some of Samsung Galaxy tablets infringe a design right from Apple. The court believes that there is no question of an infringement.
The court refers to British law which the court already had found the same two instances on the same infringement question.
Samsung themselves had something to say when it comes to the decision:
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.
It would seem that most of Europe is not impressed when it comes to Apple’s patent claims against Samsung and have deemed much of what Apple are claiming as protected, not protected at all. Germany have been a little kinder to Apple in the courts, but Europe seems one region Apple won’t be winning another billion dollars worth of damages. Personally, I think that Apple have long been clutching at straws simply because they have a very real threat in the form of Samsung and that the patents should never have been granted in the first place.
Patents are an important piece of the industry and it does help to keep it alive but, I don’t think that when Thomas Jefferson first started examining patents he thought they would come to be used to stifle innovation.
[Via: Venturebeat]