There have been a lot of ongoing law suits between Apple and Samsung Electronics in regards to the design of smartphones and computer tablets. Apple and Samsung are giant electronic companies which are responsible for more than half of the smartphones sold worldwide by July 2012. This batter all began in April 2011 when apple began its campaigns to sue Samsung for patent infringement. Patent infringement refers to committing a prohibited act in regards to patented invention with no permission of authorization from the patent holder. The latest suit was filed by apple on February 8, 2012. In retaliation, Samsung also filed counterclaims against Apple. According to Apple, Samsung had feature by feature copied Apple’s innovative products in a
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Apple accused Samsung of infringing US patents numbers: 5,946,647; 6,847,959; 7,761,414; 8,046,721 and 8,074,172. All these patents are related to software features including quick links for ‘647’, syncing for ‘414’, slide to unlock for ‘721’, automatic word correction for ‘172’ and universal search for ‘959.’ Apple pointed out that these patents facilitated the easy use of its devices and made user interface more engaging. On the other hand, Samsung accused Apple of infringing US patents numbers 6,226,449 and 5,579,239. The specific patent ‘449’ was bought by Samsung from Hitachi and mainly deals with the camera and the organization of folders. The second patent ‘239’ which was also bought by Samsung, revolves around video transmission. In the end, the jury decided that all of Samsung’s suspect gadgets had infringed the ‘quick links’ patent. However, they also established that none of the gadgets had infringed the ‘universal search’ and the ‘background sync’ patent. There were mixed responses in regard to the ‘slide to lock’ patent. The Samsung gadgets that were found to infringe the patents in question include: Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, and Stratosphere amongst others. On the other hand, Apple 's iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod Touch and iPod Touch were found to have infringed some of Samsung’s patents (Tibken, …show more content…
If found guilty of infringing someone else’s innovation, one is ordered to pay for the damages. In regard to this case, both Apple and Samsung were both found guilty of infringing a fraction of some of each other’s patents and were therefore required to pay for damage. However, compensation made to Apple is considerably low and Samsung is lucky to have escaped without paying more than it should have
Apple accused Samsung of infringing US patents numbers: 5,946,647; 6,847,959; 7,761,414; 8,046,721 and 8,074,172. All these patents are related to software features including quick links for ‘647’, syncing for ‘414’, slide to unlock for ‘721’, automatic word correction for ‘172’ and universal search for ‘959.’ Apple pointed out that these patents facilitated the easy use of its devices and made user interface more engaging. On the other hand, Samsung accused Apple of infringing US patents numbers 6,226,449 and 5,579,239. The specific patent ‘449’ was bought by Samsung from Hitachi and mainly deals with the camera and the organization of folders. The second patent ‘239’ which was also bought by Samsung, revolves around video transmission. In the end, the jury decided that all of Samsung’s suspect gadgets had infringed the ‘quick links’ patent. However, they also established that none of the gadgets had infringed the ‘universal search’ and the ‘background sync’ patent. There were mixed responses in regard to the ‘slide to lock’ patent. The Samsung gadgets that were found to infringe the patents in question include: Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, and Stratosphere amongst others. On the other hand, Apple 's iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod Touch and iPod Touch were found to have infringed some of Samsung’s patents (Tibken, …show more content…
If found guilty of infringing someone else’s innovation, one is ordered to pay for the damages. In regard to this case, both Apple and Samsung were both found guilty of infringing a fraction of some of each other’s patents and were therefore required to pay for damage. However, compensation made to Apple is considerably low and Samsung is lucky to have escaped without paying more than it should have