Samsung wins case. apple ordered to pay lawyer cost..japan!

[waggy]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/31/business/japan-samsung-apple-court/index.html?hpt=hp_c3

The Tokyo District Court on Friday ruled that Samsung did not infringe Apple's patents for its iPhone and iPad for some of its Galaxy smartphones and the Galaxy tablet.
The case focused on technology used in Samsung's Galaxy S, Galaxy S2 and Galaxy Tab 7 devices to synchronize music and video with a computer -- technology Apple says its rival copied.
However Judge Tamotsu Shoji disagreed and threw out Apple's 100 million yen ($1.27 million) claim and ordered the California-based tech giant to pay the costs of the lawsuit. It has 30 days to file an appeal.


/lol

home field advantage? or they use more common sense then they do here in the states?

 

[Dari]

Samsung is NOT Japanese, even though they would love to be.

 

[Dari]

Also, this case was filed this month. I wonder what happened to Samsung's lawsuits in Japan. Were they even filed after they were announced last year??? They probably knew better.

 

[Aristotelian]

Is the USA the only market wherein Apple has won a legal victory over Samsung regarding all of this copycat news? I'm not up to date on all the different countries where Apple has attempted to sue Samsung.

 

[Phokus]

Is the USA the only market wherein Apple has won a legal victory over Samsung regarding all of this copycat news? I'm not up to date on all the different countries where Apple has attempted to sue Samsung.

I Think apple may have won in another european court, but i think samsung won most european cases too. American patent laws are dumb.

 

[swanysto]

I wonder how much money both these companies have put into the legal system? I would think both would save some cash if they just ignored each other and made products. I realize there is a patent system for a reason, but the cost of these lawyers has got to be adding up, and the return on these cases doesn't seem to be that much. Maybe I am wrong, but have either side really put a dent in the other financially with one of these cases? Or have either of them gotten any settlement that would make all this worth it?

 

[Aristotelian]

I wonder how much money both these companies have put into the legal system? I would think both would save some cash if they just ignored each other and made products. I realize there is a patent system for a reason, but the cost of these lawyers has got to be adding up, and the return on these cases doesn't seem to be that much. Maybe I am wrong, but have either side really put a dent in the other financially with one of these cases? Or have either of them gotten any settlement that would make all this worth it?

I think, for Apple, this fundamentally boils down to protecting their marketing. Apple's marketing strength supervenes on its ability to portray itself as 'innovative'. Even if their products aren't the fastest, they are the most 'innovative' the 'experience' is simply better on their products, because Apple has a culture. You're either in that culture, or you're nothing (this last line is a rough approximation of their marketing campaign in Germany around iPhone 4 to 4s era).

So, these lawsuits (whether or not they are won by Apple), portray Apple as this righteous company that people are copying. They are trying to be the Heinz Ketchup of smartphones, and an important element in maintaining that image is to use litigation to imply that Samsung is simply a copycat of Apple.

I have had Apple users pick up my GNexus and exclaim 'it's a copy of the iphone!' and then take 4 minutes to figure out how to turn it on because there is no home button embedded in the glass, so this is the kind of result their marketing/litigation produces.

I don't think it's about money (directly) or markets (directly) at all. The litigation merely serves to promote the image Apple desires.

 

[wirednuts]

I wonder how much money both these companies have put into the legal system? I would think both would save some cash if they just ignored each other and made products. I realize there is a patent system for a reason, but the cost of these lawyers has got to be adding up, and the return on these cases doesn't seem to be that much. Maybe I am wrong, but have either side really put a dent in the other financially with one of these cases? Or have either of them gotten any settlement that would make all this worth it?

pretty much true... but when they do get a patent that holds up when contested they can hit it big. its like gambling.

 

[Dumac]

home field advantage?

what

:thumbsdown::thumbsdown:

 

[waggy]

I Think apple may have won in another european court, but i think samsung won most european cases too. American patent laws are dumb.

yes they did. but i believe it was kinda insane. a slight update took care of the issue.

 

[zerogear]

Samsung is South Korea. BTW Japan don't really like South Korea too much (and vice versa).

 

[Strk]

That's not really surprising. Japan is much more technologically savvy than us as a whole.

 

[PowerYoga]

Anybody with a smidge of technological savviness would see right through apple's BS patent disputes. Not surprised Japan just threw this in Apple's face and told them to pay up.

 

[Oyeve]

Yet another country with a smarter judicial system than the US. The more samsung wins outside the US the better the appeal in the US will be.

 

[dguy6789]

That's not really surprising. Japan is much more technologically savvy than us as a whole.

Anybody with a smidge of technological savviness would see right through apple's BS patent disputes. Not surprised Japan just threw this in Apple's face and told them to pay up.

Yet another country with a smarter judicial system than the US. The more samsung wins outside the US the better the appeal in the US will be.

This

 

[Binky]

That's not really surprising. Japan is much more technologically savvy than us as a whole.

Lies. At least half of jurors from the recent apple win have used a computer. I think 3 of them even had a cell phone at least once in their lives!

 

[badb0y]

Lies. At least half of jurors from the recent apple win have used a computer. I think 3 of them even had a cell phone at least once in their lives!

If only you knew....

 

[cl-scott]

The US has a rather screwed up system in a lot of ways. Incidentally there was a pretty well written article on Ars Technica the other day that outlines a lot of the problems with the patent system.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/08/why-johnny-cant-stream-how-video-copyright-went-insane/

But let's not forget that the laws surrounding patents are not the same in every country. So in Country A, Apple might have a much higher burden of proof to meet, while in Country B, there's a presumption of guilt... To quote Red vs. Blue: Why would we waste valuable time and resources holding trials for guilty people?

The specific language of what the patents cover might also be different in other countries, because some countries may not allow you to patent software. There are a lot of potential differences in other countries that could very well lead to different outcomes.

However, it's not that difficult to make a conspiracy theory out of this one... In the US, the iPhone holds somewhere around 30% of the market for cell phones, the iPad pretty well dominates the tablet market, and what there is of the MP3 player market not cannibalized by the iPhone, is probably pretty well dominated by the iPod. In South Korea, Japan, and even much of Europe, the various iDevices are not nearly as popular. Interestingly, that's where Apple has been stepping up their legal efforts the most. It would be fertile ground for a paranoid mind to craft a fairly convincing conspiracy theory.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Japan>America

Everyone in Japan pretty much owns a phone. My grandparents have phones! (Cellphones that is) they also know Apple and Google.

 

[Binky]

If only you knew....

I know. I read all about the jurors and their almost complete lack of technical understanding. I don't know how they found that many people without actual knowledge of smartphones.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

I know. I read all about the jurors and their almost complete lack of technical understanding. I don't know how they found that many people without actual knowledge of smartphones.

Yeah, it was funny that they tried to paint the jury as competent when reading the description made them sound like the type of people who rant to IT about their computer being broken when the monitor isn't turned on.

 

[PowerYoga]

Japan>America

Everyone in Japan pretty much owns a phone. My grandparents have phones! (Cellphones that is) they also know Apple and Google.

America takes pride in being technologically ignorant. Never seen a group of people so afraid of learning how to use a smart phone or how to use e-mail.

 

[5150Joker]

America takes pride in being technologically ignorant. Never seen a group of people so afraid of learning how to use a smart phone or how to use e-mail.

Yet America is the one creating the operating systems that drive modern phones and computers. So how again is Japan more tech savvy than us? Oh that's right, they're not. Japan isn't even relevant these days, Korea has them easily beat.

 

[tommo123]

they're far more into tech generally than americans or brits.

 

[Phokus]

Yet America is the one creating the operating systems that drive modern phones and computers. So how again is Japan more tech savvy than us? Oh that's right, they're not. Japan isn't even relevant these days, Korea has them easily beat.

The Japanese have been using cell phones as credit cards since... forever. In America, we're still STRUGGLING to get the tech right and get stores to use it.