“You copy me, I copy you” seems to be the moniker these days when it comes to tech companies. If the competition has something you don’t, you make sure you have it too, because not having it means you won’t succeed, you won’t make a sale, and more importantly, you won’t be around much longer.
There’s been an ongoing patent dispute between Apple and Samsung over this very kind of behavior. Apple thinks that Samsung has crossed a line with their Droid Charge, Infuse 4G, Galaxy S II, and Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 devices. Apple and Samsung have ended up in court battling it out over whether or not Samsung broke patents and blatantly attempted to create devices in the same vein as the iPad and iPhone.
On the surface it seems like a federal judge agreed that the devices look similar, and ruled that Samsung had to hand over specs, sample devices, and marketing materials to Apple for inspection.
Fast-forward a couple of days to today, and Samsung is now asking the court to force Apple to turn over the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 in order to determine if Apple’s upcoming products should also be part of the lawsuit.
There’s one obvious difference between Apple’s request, and Samsung’s new attempts. Samsung’s products are already on the market, but Apple’s have yet to be announced, or even ship. That’s a pretty large difference between these two requests. One company has nothing to lose by handing over information, and another could lose quite a bit by showing off a device that only exists internally.
There haven’t been any further developments on the legalities, or the motion filed by Samsung, so we’ll have to wait and see what the court orders in the immediate future.
There have, however, been some comments from Samsung’s Head of Mobile on the issue. J.K. Shin explained to the Wall Street Journal that Samsung didn’t actually copy any of Apple’s designs, and he goes on to further state that Apple’s allegations will not be problematic moving forward.
It’s not a surprise that Shin is toting the company line. Samsung is in the middle of a legal battle with Apple. What were you expecting? Omission of guilt? Not. Going. To. Happen.
Article Via This is My Next
