What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to sue the ass out of each other over patent infringement.
Yep, Apple has tossed another sticky package into the general bukakke of corporate America by suing Samsung for “slavishly” ripping off the iPhone and iPad design features with its Galaxy tablet. It’s nothing to do with the software or the apps or, you know, anything of substance (Galaxy uses Android, remember). Nope, Apple says the Samsung portable – probably their only real competitor at this point – has ripped off features like having curved edges, slim buttons and, oh-oh, the look of its screen icons.
Um, the little squares? They ripped off your little squares? Really? What else were they meant to use – trapezoids? “This kind of blatant copying is wrong,” said Apple spokesperson Kristin Huguet. Before slapping down McDonald’s for doing “circular” burgers that she says were, you know, totally her idea.
The lawsuit claims that “when a Samsung Galaxy phone is used in public, there can be little doubt that it would be viewed as an Apple product based upon the design alone.” Er, does that design include the big logo slapped across the front – you know, the one that says “Samsung”?
This new shizz lands on the already soggy biscuit of Nokia vs Apple, and Apple vs HTC – a veritable spank-fest that has seen all the main competitors in this market sue and counter-sue one another for patent breaches over the last few years. While not entirely without substance, the point of most of the suits seems more to be about mudslinging and jockeying for position – and in a market worth billions it’s not surprising.
But Apple, you’ll notice the Galaxy isn’t packing a dodgy antenna, predictive text that changes every sodding word I type into the name of an obscure Russian poet, or an offensively restrictive software package that chokes free development (and my ability to download anything you haven’t pre-authorised – though that hasn’t actually stopped me yet, hehehe…) Maybe if these wonderful design features start cropping up elsewhere you’d have a case. But the wanky little squares? Come ON!!
Go apple, take them down.
my friend josh brought his ipad 2 in to show last week, freaking awesome, though its a bit too expensive for a rss feed reader, which is what i want it for really, it’s not like i’m gonna not turn on my computer instead or anything, i mean when do i not have atleast 2 computers running.
I bought an actual apple the other day at the Market – that dude had better duck and cover for an infringement like that!
I joke of course!
I don’t eat apples. Or go places where there are people.