Judge lets Apple keep secrets from Samsung
You show me yours...
The I sue you, you sue me spat between Apple and Samsung took a turn in the iPhone maker’s favour this week.
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh ruled against the Korean company’s request last month for access to unreleased iPhone and iPad models, which it had claimed would be "highly relevant" to its defence case, according to Reuters.
Apple took a different view and its lawyers successfully argued this was an attempt to "harass" the company into revealing highly sensitive commercial information. Samsung’s request was a counter-strike following a judgement instructing the company to provide information on its own forthcoming Android products for Apple.
In her ruling released late on Tuesday the judge wrote that, "Common sense suggests that allegations of copying are necessarily directed at Apple's existing products, to which Samsung has access and could potentially mimic, and not at Apple's unreleased, inaccessible, next generation products."
Nice try, Samsung. I show you mine, you show me yours isn't going to get you a quick flash of the next big thing in court, but hang around the bars in Cupertino and you never know your luck.
Apple’s decision to sue its valued component supplier is in response to Samsung allegedly copying the look and feel of its mobile products. We covered the details with some spot-the-difference pictures in an earlier report here.

While the patent litigation rages on, Apple has also scored a direct hit today with the granting of its 2007 patent filing that focuses on the original iPhone’s touchscreen navigation and multi-touch functionality, as reported on Patently Apple. Included in a wide range of patents granted to the company this week, was the Apple remote and the soon to be defunct Front Row user interface which is to be dropped from Mac OS X 10.7 Lion released next month. ®
COMMENTS
<sarcasm>
Great idea. This 'neutral assessor' that you propose could be presented with all of the evidence by both Apple and Samsung and listen to their respective arguments. (S)he could then judge which one of them is in the right. We could even call them a 'Judge'.
</sarcasm>
So to use an analogy
Goodyear should know what next years Fords look like because they make some of the parts? How would knowing what CPU and screen are being built into the iPad 3 inform you as to what it's OS and shell look like?
Hah!
I will buy my Android even if encumbered by Apple's rent-seekery.
Did you actualy stop to think before you posted that?
1) They have a neutral assessor, he's called a Judge.
2) This is about DESIGN patents, which are NOT the same as standard patents. In other places in the world they are called registered designs and they are all about ornamental appearance not technical method. This isn't about Samsung ripping off Apple's technology, it's about them ripping off their industrial designs.
A pattern emerges...
Patent squabbles... only became a huge problem with the involvement of lawyers:
Divorce... only became a huge problem with the involvement of lawyers:
Human Rights Act... only became a huge problem with the involvement of lawyers:
Libel... only became a huge problem with the involvement of lawyers:
Is it just me, or is there a pattern emerging here?
