A judge this week rejected Apple from adding Samsung's new flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone to an existing lawsuit, causing Apple to signal it may file a new suit to target the device.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal said adding another product to the case in San Jose, Calif., would be a "tax on the court's resources," Bloomberg reported on Thursday. Citing the fact that additional products take up "considerable amounts of the court's time and energy," he said the Galaxy S4 would not become part of the ongoing patent infringement case.
In response, an attorney representing Apple said that the exclusion would require the iPhone maker to file a new, separate lawsuit. That's because the products in question in the current suit, including the Galaxy S III, will likely be out of date by the time the case goes to trial next March.
Apple first attempted to add the Galaxy S4 to the California lawsuit in May, soon after Samsung launched the device. Apple's initial analysis of the Galaxy S4 suggested to the company that it too infringes on the company's patented inventions.
Specifically, Apple believes the Galaxy S4 infringes on five patents it owns, related to Siri, data synchronization, and graphical user interface elements. Apple's complaint also took issue with the Google Now assistant service for Android.
Apple even offered to knock an existing product out of the lawsuit to appease the judge, keeping the total number of products in question at 22 with the inclusion of the Galaxy S4. But that wasn't enough for Grewal, who hopes to keep the case on track for a scheduled March 2014 trial date.
38 Comments
With such a gap between the speed of the court and the speed at which smartphones and tablets are currently advancing, Apple's course of action should be obvious: blatantly rip off any good ideas from any of the competitors and incorporate them into the iThings. By the time the courts get around to taking action, the device in question is at least two generations in the past. I really don't think there are any features from Samsung, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, etc. that I'd really want, but I am guessing there may be some that would be popular. Apple ought to just blow off the IP system and use them. It's obvious that their competitors have no shame or hesitation to steal from Apple, so Apple ought to get off its high horse and steal right back. Until our government takes its duty to "establish justice" seriously, Apple has to use the Law of the Jungle and not the Marquess of Queensberry rules.
Specifically, Apple believes the Galaxy S4 infringes on five patents it owns, related to Siri, data synchronization, and graphical user interface elements. Apple's complaint also took issue with the Google Now assistant service for Android.
Software patents, maybe they should sue Google then... or at least sue Motorola.
Or the infringements are all on the Samsung layer over Android?
With such a gap between the speed of the court and the speed at which smartphones and tablets are currently advancing, Apple's course of action should be obvious: blatantly rip off any good ideas from any of the competitors and incorporate them into the iThings.
Did Sammy give you this line of reasoning? What "ideas from competitors" are there? When the competition consists of a shark-tank of rip-off artists, there's no competitor "idea" to steal.
Perhaps Apple should try to file "blank" lawsuits, or simple suits over a triviality, and then when the suit finally makes it to court, they can amend it to include whatever product Sammy is selling at the moment, and drop the trivial claim. Since it seems to take forever for the US courts to get around to doing anything.
The length of time to get a patent case to trial should be weeks to a few months, not years. What a joke.
Did Sammy give you this line of reasoning? What "ideas from competitors" are there? When the competition consists of a shark-tank of rip-off artists, there's no competitor "idea" to steal.
Perhaps Apple should try to file "blank" lawsuits, or simple suits over a triviality, and then when the suit finally makes it to court, they can amend it to include whatever product Sammy is selling at the moment, and drop the trivial claim. Since it seems to take forever for the US courts to get around to doing anything.
7 Ways Apple Copied Android In iOS 7
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-copied-android-in-ios-7-2013-6?op=1#ixzz2XQXjM2CT
And before that:
http://pocketnow.com/2012/06/13/what-did-apple-copy-from-android-and-windows-phone-in-ios-6
and...
Top 10 Features iOS 5 Copied from Android
http://www.ibtimes.com/top-10-features-ios-5-copied-android-313714#