Apple's Claim in Germany Against Samsung's 2nd Tab, the Galaxy Tab 10.1N, is Rejected

[dgstorm]

Apple's complaints against the redesigned Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N were rejected by the judge in a German court today. Previously, Apple won an injunction barring Samsung from selling the original Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany, but Samsung came back with a slightly redesigned look. That didn't satisfy Apple's lawyers so they filed a second lawsuit to block it as well; however, this new version apparently was enough to satisfy the German courts. Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann told the court today,

“According to the court’s assessment, the defendant has moved away sufficiently from the legally protected design.”

A final ruling from the court is expected to handed down on February 9th on the issue. There was a bit of humor to go along with this story. Apparently, when Apple decided to drag Samsung back into court a second time, the court forced Apple to make detailed suggestions to Samsung in order to differentiate the two tablets. According to a quote from SlashGear, this was Apple's "suggestions":

When it comes to smartphones, Apple suggests Samsung to design devices that do not have a front surface that is black, do not have a shape that is rectangular or do not have rounded corners, and that the front surface should have substantial adornment as opposed to a sleek clean surface.

Tablets should also not be rectangular or not have rounded corners. They should have thick frames with a front surface that doesn’t lie entirely flat. Also, the profiles should not be thin and the interface should have a cluttered appearance.

So, Apple wants Samsung to make fat, wide, ugly, cluttered products, and that will be okay then. Hmmm... <sniff, sniff> What's that smell? Something stinks...

Source: SlashGear
Image Source: LatestDigitals

 

[OneTenderRebel]

 

[dgstorm]

LOL! LMAO! That is so hilarious! Nice find OTR. ROFL! My gut hurts now...

 

[soops]

Wow, now they're just getting ridiculous.:icon_ nono::icon_ nono::icon_ nono:

 

[TheOldFart]

Infantile children who whine and complain too much eventually get ignored and cease to get their way. Apple is like an infantile child and I am getting the impression that at least some world courts are starting to realize that. At least we can hope.

 

[jroc]

Do like Moto did and taper the corners on their recent tablets...problem solved.

Make the bezel a lighter shade of black, problem solved.
Its mind boggling that Samsung could do that digital picture frame....that from the front looks alot like the iPad....and yet get sued for the design of the Galaxy Tablet.....a design that Samsung has already been using with that picture frame. I wonder if that lawsuit against Moto for the XOOM design make ppl question Apple's motives and sanity. The XOOM looks nothing like an iPad from the back, so basically they were/are suing for the front of the tablet....


Amazing....simply amazing. They must have a dart board with topics on it and whatever the dart hits...thats their next lawsuit.

 

[Tillmorn]

So perhaps I'm just completely lost at this point, but in Apple's eyes they more or less believe that television companies should be suing the hell out of each other because the current trend is a very clean, minamalistic black slab look? And don't even get them started on how PC laptop designs surely look WAY too much like all of Apple's products...

 

[kodiak799]

Apple just got a couple more patents for some sort of long-term battery technology (fuel cells). Again, the language is overly broad and goes against what is supposed to be a "non-obvious" hurdle. Basically, they have patented the use of a technology that doesn't exist (???) currently that everyone knows is coming.

Increasingly Apple is looking like a company that is struggling to innovate anywhere outside of the courtroom.