Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King
Home / News & Blogs / Between the Lines

Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality

By | August 16, 2011, 10:13am PDT

Summary: But, the battle over whether Samsung’s Galaxy Tab violates Apple’s iPad design in the European Union is far from done.

Don’t start the celebration yet, but Samsung, in a technical ruling over Apple, can once more sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the European Union (EU). The battle over Samsung’s Galaxy Tab violating Apple’s design for the iPad is far from done though.

As reported in the Dutch technology news sites Webwereld, Samsung had filed an emergency complaint that the German court overstepped its power to impose a ban on Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales in other EU countries (Dutch site). Samsung argued that the German court can not decide whether the Korean company had the right to prohibit sales in, say, Italy. The judge, for the time being, has agreed to update the ex parte injunction so that the Galaxy Tab can once more be sold in the EU except for in Germany.

Personally, I never thought Apple’s suit against Samsung on the design resemblances between the two tablets had a leg to stand on. That is a matter that will be finally decided by a higher court.

Apple, however, may find winning to be far harder the second time around. That’s because it appears that, by design or mistake, Apple’s visual ‘evidence’ that the Galaxy Tab’s design was almost identical to that of the iPad had been doctored to make the resemblance closer than it actually was.

In either case, Apple should have a heck of a time winning again. Florian Mueller, a blogger who follows software patent news closely, thinks “Samsung has a pretty good chance that this temporary partial suspension will result in a partial reversal of the preliminary injunction decision at next week’s hearing.”

In short, we both think that, in the short term at least, you’ll soon be able to buy the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Europe again…. unless you live in Germany. In the long run, I think the Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be made available throughout the EU.

Related Stories:

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

More from “Between the Lines”

Topics

Samsung Galaxy Tab, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Apple Inc., European Union, Tablets, Sales Strategy, Notebooks, Sales Force Management, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Sales, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, aka sjvn, has been writing about technology and the business of technology since CP/M-80 was the cutting edge, PC operating system. Elsewhere on ZDNet, SJVN covers Networking and Open Source.

Disclosure

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols is a freelance writer. He does not own stocks or other investments in any technology company.

Biography

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, aka sjvn, has been writing about technology and the business of technology since CP/M-80 was the cutting edge, PC operating system; 300bps was a fast Internet connection; WordStar was the state of the art word processor; and we liked it.

His work has been published in everything from highly technical publications (IEEE Computer, ACM NetWorker, Byte) to business publications (eWEEK, InformationWeek, ZDNet) to popular technology (Computer Shopper, PC Magazine, PC World) to the mainstream press (Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, BusinessWeek).

60
Comments
Add Your Opinion

Join the conversation!

Just In

RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
non-biased 26th Aug
@facebook@... I am sure Apple could cover the loses Samsung would incur from not selling a couple dozen tablets wink
View in thread
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
tatiGmail 16th Aug
it's a amazing that only a tech blog was able to point out the court's stupidity, who is the judge in this case...
0 Votes
+ -
Eyeglasses anyone?
rhonin 16th Aug
@tatiGmail

At least they finally got around to acknowledging what we saw initially. Someone got their glasses from Auchan?

grin
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
mikies 16th Aug
@rhonin Auchan is out of business now, no? wink
0 Votes
+ -
but the court docs show that the judge physically handled both devices..
doctorSpoc Updated - 16th Aug
@tatiGmail

The judge at the centre of the Apple-Samsung patent spat did have his hands on the iPad and Galaxy Tab hardware, dispelling fears that Apple had swayed the ruling by submitting inaccurate pictures of the hardware.
According to court documents (in German), the judge had substantiating evidence in the form of "visual inspection of the Galaxy Tab 10.1", so didn't rely on pictures submitted in Apple's original filing.


Read more: Updated: Judge did see tablets in Samsung patent case | News | PC Pro http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/369340/updated-judge-did-see-tablets-in-samsung-patent-case#ixzz1VDqX0gBg
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
jgm@... 16th Aug
@doctorSpoc Maybe the Galaxy Tab was really an iPad 1 with the Apple logo removed. wink
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
villacak 16th Aug
@tatiGmail
What Apple is doing is create confusion within the court due the lack of technological knowledge they have.
" Apple?s visual ?evidence? that the Galaxy Tab?s design was almost identical to that of the iPad had been doctored to make the resemblance closer than it actually was." I don't believe that the Apple lawyer didn't know about it, he/she knew and did it intentional. It's why they always start well and then nothing happens. They are playing low, and it's easy to see.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
BillDem 17th Aug
@tatiGmail It's a sad thing that non-technical judges are deciding the futures of decidedly technical products. Technology questions should be decided by panels of technologically sophisticated people, not clueless judges who can be tricked with Photoshop.
0 Votes
+ -
Great, now we just need to fix Germany
facebook@... 16th Aug
Does Samsung have any injunctive relief for the damanges sustained by the ban in both Europe and, continuing in Germany?
0 Votes
+ -
Yes
oncall 16th Aug
@facebook@...

Assuming Apple loses it is totally on the hook for any financial losses incurred by Samsung.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
deusexmachina  17th Aug
@oncall

This is ENTIRELY inaccurate. Apple is responsible for legal costs, NOT the costs associated with market disruption. You just don't know what you are talking about.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
BillDem 17th Aug
@facebook@... Market loss issues would have to be decided in a separate filing by Samsung. The only thing Apple would definitely be liable for are legal costs.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
non-biased 26th Aug
@facebook@... I am sure Apple could cover the loses Samsung would incur from not selling a couple dozen tablets wink
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
spark555 16th Aug
How does one "accidentally" warp the aspect ratio of just one of two photos to make it look more like the first one?
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
wizard57m@... 16th Aug
@spark555
The same way you "accidentally" lose an iPhone 4 prototype
in a bar??!!
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
spark555 16th Aug
@wizard57m@... I'm much more willing to buy the "I lost it at a bar" story. "I accidentally photoshopped one of the two pictures" is harder for me, even if it happened while sitting in a bar happy
0 Votes
+ -
Exactly
Cayble Updated - 16th Aug
@spark555
To start with, losing an iPhone prototype is not something that is likely to have anything but negative repercussions for you. So, unless your a certified beggar for punishment there is not going to be any reason for a presumption that it was done on purpose.

On the other hand, photoshopping an image, just editing it in any way, typically requires some positive action on the part of someone, and in this case, because the resulting image would be likely to bolster Apples position in court there is a reason to presume it could have been done on purpose.

The interesting thing here is, if it was done accidentally its an accident of the worst possible kind. When preparing documentation of this sort for court, one has to be aiming for extreme accuracy. This is necessary because documents of all kinds are presented in court and it happens so often that there has to be some presumption on the part of a court that significant measures have been taken to ensure the document is accurate or otherwise properly qualified on the record as to any anomalies that may exist and why.

Its fairly common knowledge among lawyers, that to have such a document which has been submitted to the court as being accurate only to be later discovered to be inaccurate in some material way can be disastrous. Even if it was completely accidental, its seen by the court as being careless on the part of legal counsel and the rotten air of possible deception will hang about the offending parties case.

So, if in fact this was just some kind of mistake its a really bizarre mistake given the very nature of the mistake goes directly to the nature of Apples complaint. Meaning it was the very kind of error that commands due diligence be taken to the extreme to avoid such a critical error, and if it was a mistake then someone in Apples legal department didn't do their job to a completely embarrassing degree.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
morrig 18th Aug
@wizard57m@... Impossible...Hick
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
bargeemike 17th Aug
@spark555 I have yet to see any corroboration that the above photos are the actual photos in the submission. Two can play the fakery game you know.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
spark555 17th Aug
@bargeemike The photos are exactly what Apple submitted. Get over it already.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
Muzhik1 Updated - 17th Aug
@spark555, as someone pointed out in an earlier report on this issue (too lazy to look it up), the change in aspect ratio can be accounted for by having a PDF with the image of the item set to use "letter-sized" (US measurement) paper, then printed out using A4 (European-letter-sized) paper, with the PDF set to print to the margins rather than keeping the original image ratios.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
spark555 17th Aug
@Muzhik1 So, how come it just so happened this "accident" of reformatting happened to only one of the two side-by-side images in the document?
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
deusexmachina  17th Aug
@spark555
Very easily, and no, you don't need to use photoshop. In fact, since the vertical aspect remains the same, it is quite easy to believe that the size change resulted from automatic image resizing of the documents to fit certain format constraints. This can happen just in the photocopying process, no photo editing required. While this should not have occurred it is just as easy to see it as the mistake of a poorly trained paralegal than a conscious effort at deception, ESPECIALLY since the devices in question were physically handled by the judge.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
spark555 17th Aug
@deusexmachina?? How about "accidentally" opening he app tray on the GT so that it gets rid of the (completely different looking) home screen, and gives an appearance which happens to be closer to the iPad? Also a convenient accident?
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
deusexmachina  Updated - 18th Aug
@ spark555

First, that is a separate issue, thus making your argument a red herring. But what about it? The fact that the app tray and iOS home screen serve as App launchers is the central issue, not that Android uses the terminology and the central functionality of the home screen differently. And again, the units were PHYSICALLY HANDLED BY THE JUDGE.
0 Votes
+ -
Apple gets a bitter taste of justice (small but it is a start)
Raid6 Updated - 16th Aug
It is so incredibly fun, delicious in fact, that Apple is now the tyrant, that they are the love-to-hate enterprise of today.

Yesterday it was MS, and frankly MS will always be loathed by many. But in the past several years it has been striking, glaring, and clearly evident that Apple's litigious appetite has been, well nuts!

Defenders will pile on, but they are just small minded Mac-Tards. While I am a Windoze fanboy, I never excuse M$ for bad business practices and absolutely want them to be above bad and unethical business practices - that is simply how I operate in my own life.

Apple for the past several years has not only been aggressive, which is admirable in my view, they have been dirty, unethical, and incredibly dishonest.

It seems as though Apple is afraid of a little competition and there practices appear to be lessons learned from MS in the late 90's.
0 Votes
+ -
When you fly under the radar...
Cayble Updated - 16th Aug
@Raid6
...its not surprising when nobody writes a story about you, and that went to Apples benefit for many years.

In all seriousness, for a very long time it was easy for Apple to take a series of never ending pot shots at MS because everything MS did of any significance was in the news and Apple just didn't have the profile themselves for years that made them anywhere near so newsworthy.

Its like the little guy living next door to the mansion/millionaire and taking numerous jabs at the mansion owner for every little thing he can think of thats been in the news about the guy. "He doesn't pay his hired help enough, he puts the wrong kind of trash out on the wrong day, he has too many loud parties, he leaves his car parked on the street during the wrong hours of the day".

Well, now the shoe is on the other foot and lo and behold; just as many have predicted, most companies, like most people, have an awful lot of similar shortcomings when its really looked into.

Many, (at least the many that havnt been wearing Apple colored glasses) have said for years that there was nothing so special or maagical about the way Apple runs their afairs that makes tem such a wonderful corporate citizen and as their popularity has risen, and the press now keeps just as a critical eye on their products and behaviour we see the very same kinds of shortcommings in Apple that not so long ago were constantly attributed to being MS problems and not the problems of a smart responsable company like Apple.

Well, now Apple has a little more press then they have been used to...and guess what? It looks like just more of the same as any other company.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
balaknair 17th Aug
@Cayble
"Well, now Apple has a little more press then they have been used to...and guess what? It looks like just more of the same as any other company. "

My view is that they're actually worse/scarier than MS. They're actually much better at doing evil than MSFT ever was. And they're adept at using their RDF to distract their fanbase, much better than MSFT were; remember how often MSFT got caught fooling around(they mostly avoided being punished, but their image did take a beating even among their supporters).

And MSFT may have been pretty rotten at the top, but they also had a lot of honest folk, especially techies(not MBA types) who I've heard occasionally rebelled at their bosses more obnoxious tactics. Add to that the infighting among MSFT's pointy haired bosses, and their capacity to do evil was markedly reduced, especially once Gates retired.
Compare that to Apple- it's a monoculture, everyone toes the company line which is whatever Jobs says. I can't imagine Ballmer having the same amount of influence within MSFT.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
deusexmachina  17th Aug
@Raid6
"they have been dirty, unethical, and incredibly dishonest" Funny that you don't bother to provide verifiable specifics.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
spark555 17th Aug
@deusexmachina?? So... what do YOU call the conveniently distorted images in an official court filing, with the aspect ratio changed to be closer than it really is, the app tray opened to make the user interface look more similar than it really is, the camera and other buttons accidentally moved to make the two devices look more similar.... Would you be putting the label "honest" and "ethical" on these specifics, or not?
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
deusexmachina  Updated - 19th Aug
@ spark555
I addressed your app tray nonsense above. As to this issue, the comment was related to past behaviour, so ANY issue about the current trade dress law suit is irrelevant.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
statuskwo5 16th Aug
It sucks to be in EU if a court in one country can [almost] decide for the whole EU. "European" in this sense is misleading and wrong because you are lumping all European countries together even though not all of them are part of EU.
0 Votes
+ -
Shades of standard oil, ibm, ms, and of course apple!
kd5auq 16th Aug
We are doomed to repeating mistakes!
0 Votes
+ -
Fortunately, the courts generally understand the
baggins_z 16th Aug
law and precedent behind trade dress better than tech bloggers and ZDNet talkback posters.
0 Votes
+ -
seriously..
doctorSpoc Updated - 16th Aug
@baggins_z.. i double dare any of the guys saying that this issue lives or dies based on the aspect ratio to make bottles exactly like traditional coca-cola bottles except just a little bit longer (stretched) and start selling your own branded cola in them and see how long it takes before you get a call from coca-cola lawyers..

are people, blogger really THAT stupid?
0 Votes
+ -
Making lame comments walk
Robert Hahn 16th Aug
@doctorSpoc
It's not stupidity. It's zealotry. Many of these people are zealots in the same way that people on the political blogs are zealots. "Your guys torture puppies! My guys heal the sick and raise the dead." Nothing their favorite company does can ever be wrong, and nothing The Object of Hatred does can ever be right.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
spark555 16th Aug
@doctorSpoc I'm not aware of anyone saying the case lived or died on aspect ratio. Simple fact is that the materials Apple filed mis-represented the aspect ratio, as well as what looks like several other physical details of the product they were claiming infringed on their design.

Since the entire case DOES revolve around the design of the product, it sure does seem important that Apple filed pictures which distorted the aspect ratio, and maybe the button locations, trim details, camera location, etc.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
jgm@... 16th Aug
@doctorSpoc It's not stupid to just see yet another rectangular slab with a screen. It's like Hyundai suing Cadillac because their car is rectangular with four wheels and a windshield. LCDs are rectangular too... it's not like you can readily make hand-helds shaped like a hockey puck to make Apple happy!
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
deusexmachina  Updated - 17th Aug
@jgm
Actually, yes, that is stupid. The suit is NOT about it just being a rectangular screen. Again, as pointed out by the OP, all you do with this statement is make your COMPLETE ignorance of trade dress law blatantly obvious.
And again, since the judge HANDLED the physical objects, these statements over the relative importance of the aspect ratio in the pictures is all but completely irrelevant, which, BTW, is why the judge did NOT side in Samsung's favour, NOR reverse his position vis-a-vis the sales ban, only the narrow aspect of scope of applicability, which has to do with EU law, and had NOTHING to do with the issue of the doctored pictures.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
Lord_of_the_Singhs 16th Aug
Dear ZDNet

Why is it that when Apple loses it is a "legal technicality", but when it wins it "deals a massive blow"?
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
spark555 16th Aug
@Lord_of_the_Singhs It is a bit funny. Apple files a suit using faked up images and lands a "massive blow". The court wakes up an notices that it doesn't even have the authority to tell other countries outside Germany what to do, and it's a "legal technicality".

I suppose when the case gets tossed entirely out next week due to misrepresentation in the suit's filings, it'll be... "minor setback?" happy
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
Lord_of_the_Singhs 17th Aug
@spark555 : Yeah, considering that if Apple gets to pay any fine, it will be "peanuts" and if the same happens to anyone other than Apple, it will probably start from "bankruptcy".
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
mktpostal@... Updated - 16th Aug
Apple continues to be embarrassed with their own lawsuits. Remember when Apple claimed to have invented the windows/mouse interface and sued Microsoft over it.
The fact is that Xerox invented the interface; apple copied it and subsequently lost the case.
Apple thinks that if it designs a cool looking toaster, it gives them the right to claim that it invented the toaster.
Also, a bigger issue here is why are the patent offices granting such patents. They are asleep at the wheel at these offices.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
illwill112 16th Aug
@mktpostal@...
Obviously you have selecting reading because you did not read the update. Maybe you should do some reseacrh before posting your utter nonsense.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
Dan the Digital Dog 16th Aug
Very funny, and kind of sad. I've gone back to MS because of Apple's business practices. Moved to OSX because of recurring security scares with Win XP, and the ibook G4 was good I thought. Then when I wanted to replace the DVD drive I found them charging $500 US and also that external Mac-compatible DVD drives were no longer available in Japan due to draconian license enforcement. So I got a Win 7 notebook instead, as the new OS had some good reviews, and I will be with MS for a long time now they have finally got the security issue under control. Why does Apple do this? Why the repeat of the "look and feel" lawsuits of the past? They're ludicrous - like Toyota suing Ford because the car also has 4 wheels!
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
Frenz9 16th Aug
@Dan the Digital Dog

'Why the repeat of the "look and feel" lawsuits of the past? They're ludicrous - like Toyota suing Ford because the car also has 4 wheels! '

Love the analogy, this has been my thoughts with this whole tablet dress suit drama.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
afedwin@... 17th Aug
@Dan the Digital Dog
Couldn't agree better! What's more, the photos provided as proof by Apple were touched up! Dishonesty or careless mistake? Either ways, I predict the case shall be thrown out.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
mikies 16th Aug
Almost there. It is really sad that a company with just average products, like Apple's, can use its stash of money to block truly innovating companies from selling their products in the marketplace. Nice job Sammy!
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
spark555 16th Aug
@mikies Ironically, I completely disagree. Apple is outstanding at taking various specific kinds of products, and producing a better designed, more polished interface on an example of the genre. They already dominate the tablet marketplace _because_ the iPad is an excellent product.

What is pathetic is to see them pretending that they invented the entire concept of a tablet, own anything which is rectangular with rounded corners, and presenting outright fake material in court cases to try and drive competitors out when they already own 80% of the market.

What happened to the Apple that wasn't afraid of competition, that openly embraced imitating and refining existing good ideas, and who had CONFIDENCE that they could make a product good enough that they could succeed on its merits as opposed to a fleet of lawyers and a guy with handy photoshop skills?
0 Votes
+ -
Lol. "a legal technicality"
johnmckay 17th Aug
Since when did a total lie, doctored images, and a pathetic reason become "a technicality". You can't help thinking these blogs are just a tad biased. Next we'll be told whitespace is patented and we've all to stop using it. Give us a break!
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Samsung beats Apple on a legal technicality
afedwin@... 17th Aug
@GetReal-mac.com
Lol! And that the alphabet's been patented. More lol!

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

Blog Roll

Blog Archive

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix