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Samsung chief: Galaxy Nexus 'designed to bypass Apple patents'

By | October 19, 2011, 2:36am PDT

Summary: The Galaxy Nexus, which runs the latest Android “Ice Cream Sandwich” operating system, was designed to avoid future patent litigation, Samsung’s mobile chief said.

Amid the conflicts and legal battles between Apple and Samsung over the alleged infringement of networking and design patents, Samsung has a seemingly lethal weapon up its sleeve, designed to battle head-to-head with the main smartphone rival, the iPhone.

According to Samsung’s mobile chief Shin Jong-Kyan, the new Galaxy Nexus, which runs the Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” operating system, was designed to bypass Apple’s patents and further legal disputes.

Speaking to the Korean Yonhap News Agency, Jong-Kyan said the day before the Nexus launch: “Now we will avoid everything we can and take patents very seriously”, adding that while patents can be difficult to identify, Samsung had “tried to ensure no known patent by Apple” is included in the new smartphone.

Jong-Kyan went on to criticise Apple, saying that the company will not achieve much from its legal action, but that Samsung is “losing the pride in our brand” as a result.

His comments, made on Tuesday, were under embargo until after the launch yesterday.

Apple, on the other hand, remains sceptical, stating on numerous occasions that the Korean smartphone and tablet giant “appropriated its intellectual property”.

Apple secured a temporary ban on sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab tablet in Germany and Australia, after the courts said a selection of Samsung’s products breached design patents owned by Apple.

Efforts are under way by Apple in the United States to ban a series of Samsung’s Galaxy phones and tablets, with a court ruling expected soon. As the U.S. has one of the largest share of tablet and smartphone consumers — with one in four U.S. users owning a Samsung phone — the ban would mark a major blow against Samsung’s smartphone business worldwide.

But Samsung is fighting back against Apple’s claims, by filing motions in France and Italy, and later on Japan and Australia, in a bid to halt the sale of the recently released Apple iPhone 4S. Claiming Apple infringes its networking patents, industry experts and analysts claim that Samsung’s legal fightback will be ‘futile’.

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Topics

Patent, Nexus, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Apple Inc., Zack Whittaker

Zack Whittaker, a criminologist who studied at the University of Kent, Canterbury, is a journalist, writer and broadcaster.

Disclosure

Zack Whittaker

I worked briefly with Microsoft UK in 2006 but no longer have any connection with the company. Regardless, I remain impartial and unbiased in my views.

I don't hold any stock or shares, investments or industrial secrets in any company, but have signed confidentiality agreements with a number of UK and U.S. organisations, whose names I am not at liberty to disclose.

I was involved with Kent Union, the University of Kent's student union, undertaking voluntary, non-salaried, elected positions between early 2009 and mid-2010.

No other company, body, government department, non-governmental organisation or third sector organisation employs me or pays me a salary in any capacity whatsoever.

As a freelance journalist, whenever expenses are given and taken by a company that is not CBS Interactive, these will be disclosed in each relevant post to ensure transparency.

I currently work with a UK law enforcement unit, but this is an entirely separate position which bears no connection to other work.

(Updated: 23rd October 2011)

Biography

Zack Whittaker

Zack Whittaker, criminologist who studied at the University of Kent, UK, is a journalist, writer and broadcaster.

After studying criminology at university, though still in his early-20's, he has already had a series unconventional work and voluntary positions. He has worked with researchers studying neurological illnesses like Tourette's syndrome (which he suffers from), has given lectures on the nature of disabilities in the public community, and occasionally ends up speaking on television and radio discussing the events of the day.

He first had academic work published at the age of 22, then still an undergraduate, and has been cited by a wide range of publications: from CNN, the Huffington Post, AllThingsDigital, The Atlantic Wire and CBS News.

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RE: Samsung chief: Galaxy Nexus 'designed to bypass Apple patents'
mdeans@... 3rd Nov
@Natanael_L I think they like to call it minimalist. You get minimal design, minimal buttons, minimal hardware and then it's just so wonderful you get maximum price.
View in thread
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Tiring
rhonin 19th Oct
It is getting to the point with these so called "patent infringements" that some agency needs to step forward and toss them all replacing them with a review and fix of the current ludicrous patent process.
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It won't work
guihombre 19th Oct
Patents are a joke, Apple will simply re-interpret the patents to cover anything new Samsung does and sue.
Plus USPTO issued patents for things that exist already (e.g. they issued an episodic web broadcast patent when Webcasts had already existed, and the troll sued Apple based on that). It isn't sufficient to say "we don't infinge current patents" when the USPTO ignores most prior art and all trade secrets as though they don't exist.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/09/21/riddle-me-this-do-patent-trolls-create-wealth-or-d.aspx

Trolls destroyed $88 in value to collect $7.8 billion in revenue [for inventions they don't make].
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What? thought that was impossible?
doctorSpoc 19th Oct
Thought there was no other way to design tablets and phones than the way Apple did? Samsung is a joke! Look at Somy's tablet, look at Acer Iconia tab, look at Motorola's new RAZR... add a curve, a beveled edge, metallic accent here or there to make you device distinctive.. none of this needs to affect thickness (look at MOTOs new phones and Acer icons tabs) or be creative like Sony and make a shape that says scr*w thinness make a shape that feels WAY nicer in hand than iPad..

finally we are going to get some creativity instead of follow the leader!
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RE: Samsung chief: Galaxy Nexus 'designed to bypass Apple patents'
xpect 19th Oct
@doctorSpoc Well said!
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RE: Samsung chief: Galaxy Nexus 'designed to bypass Apple patents'
Natanael_L 19th Oct
@doctorSpoc: So we can't use anything generic or obvious anymore?
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RE: Samsung chief: Galaxy Nexus 'designed to bypass Apple patents'
mdeans@... 3rd Nov
@Natanael_L I think they like to call it minimalist. You get minimal design, minimal buttons, minimal hardware and then it's just so wonderful you get maximum price.
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RE: Samsung chief: Galaxy Nexus 'designed to bypass Apple patents'
browser. 19th Oct
So, Samsung acknowledged that they have copied from iPhone till date??? Get a life copyists
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RE: Samsung chief: Galaxy Nexus 'designed to bypass Apple patents'
Michael Alan Goff 19th Oct
@browser.

No, they acknowledged that Apple will continue to sue them if it could even, at the fringe of reality, have a case made for it.

And they're right.
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RE: Samsung chief: Galaxy Nexus 'designed to bypass Apple patents'
non-biased 25th Oct
@Michael Alan Goff No, he specifically said they are taking patents seriously now implying that in the past they didn't. In other words in the past they didn't worry about infringing on somebody else's IP but that has become a legal headache for them so moving forward they will.
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RE: Samsung chief: Galaxy Nexus 'designed to bypass Apple patents'
Rndmacts Updated - 19th Oct
@browser. No they didn't, they stated they took special care to make sure that Apple could not find something to sue with. Based on the fact that Apple doctored documents to make it appear that the two items were identical when they weren't. The stupidest part of all this is that the US patent office gave a patent on design, if that was the case for cars we would only be driving Fords. Apple is going to get its comeuppance, because the 4S is the first sign that they really don't have anything new to offer and all they are going to do is repackage the same old, same old. This is what almost bankrupted them in the past and its going to come back and bite them big time this time around.
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Yes they did.
wackoae 19th Oct
@Rndmacts With this they completely acknowledged that they knew they were violating Apple's patents in the past.
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RE: Samsung chief: Galaxy Nexus 'designed to bypass Apple patents'
Natanael_L 19th Oct
@wackoae: Why?
You can intentionally choose to change your behaviour when you get complaints no matter how right you are just to get rid of complaints. That's actually common, I bet you can figure out a billion situations like taht yourself.

What they have acknowledged is that they have previously not payed much attention to what Apple have patented and now will start to actively avoid those things instead.
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RE: Samsung chief: Galaxy Nexus 'designed to bypass Apple patents'
danbi 20th Oct
@Nataniel_L

While that may happen from time to time, it is certainly not the case with Samsung. Samsung have been known, for years (decades) of having the practice to copycat other's products.

The part ???Now we will avoid everything we can and take patents very seriously??? is especially revealing.
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RE: Samsung chief: Galaxy Nexus 'designed to bypass Apple patents'
PhillyIT Updated - 19th Oct
Why settle for market dominance based on a superior product if you can sue the competition out of the market? As much as I despise the practice it makes economic sense for Apple. The real culprit are the current patent laws in the U.S. and around the world. Patent litigation lawyers are getting rich and it adds to the cost of the products we're buying.
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RE: Samsung chief: Galaxy Nexus 'designed to bypass Apple patents'
non-biased 25th Oct
@PhillyIT Why settle for letting somebody steal your IP? The patent system might be broken but it is currently what we have and Apple has every right to protect their IP under current law just as Samsung has every obligation to no violate somebody else's IP under current law. Doesn't matter what you or me or anybody else on here thinks about the current situation of patent law, it's what we have to work with until it is changed.
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Won't work...
Naryan 19th Oct
Apple will get their claws on any scrap of cash they can get.
And if they can't get any and they know it, they will sue anyway to delay and disrupt the launch in typical Apple fashion.
They're evil.
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RE: Samsung chief: Galaxy Nexus 'designed to bypass Apple patents'
paul@... 19th Oct
It's Shin Jong-kyun. The family name is Shin.
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RE: Samsung chief: Galaxy Nexus 'designed to bypass Apple patents'
daengbo 19th Oct
@paul@... Yes, please fix this. It's terrible. You wouldn't be saying "Michael announced that Dell is targeting the server market in Q1."

It should be "Shin said the day before the Nexus launch" and "Shin went on to criticise Apple."
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RE: Samsung chief: Galaxy Nexus 'designed to bypass Apple patents'
Zathras10 Updated - 19th Oct
Whenever I hear the words "Apple" and "networking" together in the same sentence, let alone with "patents" thrown in, I remember the router-choking horror that was AppleTalk, and I giggle.
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RE: Samsung chief: Galaxy Nexus 'designed to bypass Apple patents'
AmediaN Updated - 1st Nov
NT

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