Apple v. Samsung

DISPUTE BETWEEN APPLE AND SAMSUNG
INTRODUCTION
The following case study is of how and why the two world's biggest mobile tech companies fall
into the legal battle with each other. Apple and Samsung are the leading companies and used to
get along great until 2010 when Samsung started selling android devices and Steve jobs who was
the founder of Apple started hating Samsung and once stated that Samsung is the "stolen
product"- a ripoff of the iphone.
CASE STUDY
So, in 2005 when Apple was about to launch their iphones, just before that Apple filed a suite of
4 design patents covering the basic shape of the iPhone. These were followed up in June of that
year with a massive filing of a color design patent covering 193 screen shots of various
iPhone graphical user interfaces.
Till 2010 it was going great until Samsung came into the market and Apple felt that Samsung
had infringed their Apple patents but then Samsung was the major Apple supplier and a “trusted
partner" and also Apple spends billions on Samsung flash memory, screens, processors, and
other components. Apple thought it would be risky to enter into such legal battleground but
eventually apple realized that they don't have any other choice.
At First Apple tried to settle the dispute among themselves and called for a meeting with
Samsung. Apple proposed Samsung to pay up to $30 per phone an $40 per tablet. In
comparison, six months earlier HTC agreed to pay Microsoft a reported $5 for every Android
device sold. But Samsung declines.
As Apple had no choice left for them and therefore in 2011, Apple filed a suit against Samsung
in Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., that was the first case in the series of ongoing
lawsuit between the two parties. Apple claimed that Samsung’s Galaxy phones embodies a
combination of several elements of the Apple Product Configuration Trade Dress namely, a
product configuration with:
• a rectangular product shape with all four corners uniformly rounded
• the front surface of the product dominated by a screen surface with black borders
1
• substantial black borders above and below the screen having roughly equal width and narrower
black borders on either side of the screen having roughly equal width
• a metallic surround framing the perimeter of the top surface
• a display of a grid of colorful square icons with uniformly rounded corners
• a bottom row of icons set off from the other icons and that do not change as the other pages of
the user interface are viewed
Within days after Apple sued Samsung, Samsung countersues over 3G technology patents, and
takes the fight international by filing claims against Apple in Japan, Germany, and Korea.
August 2011, Apple and Samsung were litigating 19 ongoing cases in nine countries. By
October, the legal disputes expanded to ten countries. By July 2012, the two companies were still
embroiled in more than 50 lawsuits around the globe, with billions of dollars in damages claimed
between them.
WHAT LAW SAYS
PATENT PROTECTION
Patent protection is the protection given by the government to the inventors, excluding others
from copying, misappropriating, selling, adapting, using, making, importing without the consent
of the inventor. It is the exclusive right given to the patent owner. It is a bundle of right given to
them. A patent is a right which basically motivates the inventor to come up with new invention
and also to protect their invention In a famous judgment, court signifies when a patet can said to
be granted under the patent act1.
The benefits for patent protection apart from using the patent to prevent others from exploiting
your invention, you can employ it to raise funds for your business, license it to third parties for
commercial returns or sell the patented invention.
DESIGN PROTECTION
In India, The Designs Act 2000 states that the design must be applicable to an article and be
apparent to the eye. In addition to this it must be new or original as at the relevant priority date.
1
Dr. Snehlata C. Gupte v. Union Of India & ors( W.P. (c) NO. 3516 ans 3517 of 2007)
2
This is to be judged against articles of an analogous character and must be more than an
immaterial difference.
A design refers to the feature of a shape, configuration.
The Designs Act allows for a grace period for disclosures at officially recognized exhibitions
provided that an application for registration is lodged within six months of that disclosure.
Publication without the consent of the designer will not destroy eligibility to obtain registration
but it must be shown that the designer has used all reasonable diligence to seek registration once
he or she has become aware of the prior publication. As is with other formal registration systems
for IP, a process applies in relation to obtaining registration.
RECENT TRENDS IN IP
In a recent case in 2014, Ericsson mobile company filed a case against Xiaomi (another mobile
company) in india for the infrigenment of the 8 standard essential patents. In December
2014, Ericsson had filed a suit against Xiaomi in India for the alleged infringement of the
8 standard-essential patents. The Delhi High Court granted an ex-parte injunction on the sale,
manufacture, advertisement, and import of Xiaomi’s devices. Xiaomi claimed that its latest
devices in the Indian market (as of December 2014), the Mi3, Redmi1S and Redmi Note 4G,
contained Qualcomm chipsets, which implemented technologies licensed by Ericsson. Xiaomi
subsequently challenged the injunction before a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court, which
issued temporary orders to allow Xiaomi to resume the sale, import, manufacture, and
advertisement of its mobile devices subject to the some conditions
CONCLUSION
The term intellectual property refers broadly to the creations of the human mind. Intellectual
property rights protect the interests of creators by giving them property rights over their creations
and the term ip infringement is the violation or infringement of the right which has been given to
the owner of the invention. There are various types of ip infringement like trademark
infringement, patent infringement, copyright infringement. The above mention case i.e. Apple
Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, was the best example to show how patent and design
infringement works

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DISPUTE BETWEEN APPLE AND SAMSUNG

WHAT LAW SAYS

A design refers to the feature of a shape, configuration.

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