The good news is that Samsung does not have to worry about infringing Apple’s patent anymore on its Galaxy Tab tablet. The bad news? It is “not as cool” as Apple iPad. And it is official.
A U.K. Judge Colin Birss ruled in a 40-page document that the Samsung tablets do not infringe Apple’s registered design No. 000181607-0001.
“The informed user’s overall impression of each of the Samsung Galaxy Tablets is the following. From the front they belong to the family which includes the Apple design; but the Samsung products are very thin, almost insubstantial members of that family with unusual details on the back. They do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design,” wrote the Judge.
“They are not as cool,” he added.
The patent lawsuits battles between Apple and others had been ongoing, especially among HTC and Samsung. Apple had also recently attempted to block Samsung’s Galaxy S3 smartphone from entering the U.S. market but failed.
Despite framed that it is “not as cool”, Samsung seems to be happy about the decision.
"Samsung welcomes today’s ruling by the High Court, which affirms Samsung’s commitment to protect its own intellectual property rights while respecting those of other companies,” wrote the company to Pocket-lint.
“Samsung believes Apple’s excessive legal claims based on such a generic design right can harm not only the industry’s innovation as a whole, but also unduly limit consumer choice."
Meanwhile, Apple contacted Pocket-lint to reiterate that Samsung is infringing their intellectual properties.
"It's no coincidence that Samsung's latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging. This kind of blatant copying is wrong and, as we've said many times before, we need to protect Apple's intellectual property when companies steal our ideas."
What do you think? Did Samsung copy Apple products? Or are they “not as cool” as U.K. Judge ruled?
Feel free to share your opinions.
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