Apple wins (another) Samsung Android injunction in EU
Dutch court blocks phone trio
A Dutch court has warmed the hearts of Apple's patent Nazis, issuing a preliminary injunction against the sale of three Samsung Android phones: the Galaxy S, the Galaxy S II, and the Ace.
As noticed by the ubiquitous Florian Mueller, the injunction is due to take affect in the middle of October, but it only applies to certain EU countries where Apple has successfully registered a software patent related to the way photos are handled on a mobile device .
The injunction is separate from the one laid down by an EU court against Samsung's Galaxy Android tablet, and it prohibits only the sale of Samsung's Android phones by three of the company's Dutch subsidiaries.
In a statement sent to the BBC, Samsung said that it did not expect the injunction to affect sales of the devices outside of the Netherlands. But officially, the injunction bars the three subsidiaries from selling the devices in the UK, France, Germany, Finland, Ireland, Lichtenstein, Luxemburg, Monaco, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Samsung also said it intends to modify the phones so that sales are not disrupted in the Netherlands.
The Apple patent at the heart of the matter – available here – describes a way of viewing and organizing photos on a device with a touchscreen display.
"In some embodiments, the user interacts with the GUI primarily through finger contacts and gestures on the touch-sensitive display," the patent reads. "Instructions for performing photo management may be included in a computer program product configured for execution by one or more processors."
Though the court backed Apple's claims on this patent, it rejected several other Jobsian claims. Nonetheless, it's a victory for Apple. And the cult will seek many more. ®
COMMENTS
Wowie zowie
"Instructions for performing photo management may be included in a computer program product configured for execution by one or more processors."
Groundbreaking stuff. Will these processors execute binary instructions, too?
When you cannot innovate, litigate!
apple suing over everything rectangular still... over gloss and rounded corners.. to any court who has the time to listen..
Some where across the internet apple fanboys pleasure themselves to this bs.
It really shows how draconian the patent & court systems are.
It shows how afraid of competition and unamerican apple has become.
Apple is trying to rewrite history if it thinks its the first to create a tablet or smartphone with a touchscreen. When you cannot innovate, just litigate. sue the competition, deny the consumer a better product, for as long as you can.
Hmmm
Well, I answered Andrews comment before this one showed up, but the bottom line is that Apple has lost in reality, Samsung won't even notice the blip, but we now have a pure software patent running wild in Europe - sad times.
Good question
Let's look at what Google has done.
They have millions/billions on the line, and were competing against the best selling phone of all time. They didn't hoard patents, they made an excellent OS and many devices began using it. Even now that they are the best selling mobile operating system, they have not initiated any lawsuits with other companies over their phones. Even when iOS started directly copying things from the Android OS (notifications, iCloud, etc.), they did not litigate. They take it as a compliment and continue to improve.
So no, nobody is forcing Apple to sue everybody.
Apple won nothing and lost more
Apple lost here not Samsung! 2 of the patents were thrown out, basically stating that Apple does not have these patents because of prior devices already doing it. They also lost the "you made it look like ours" claim for the same reasons. Samsung was already planning on changing the app in question and will have it done before the injunction is in force in October. The judge actually said that because of the ipad design it "makes it self less viable for design protect". Apple lost big time here with its claims of uniqueness and innovation with its patents.
