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Samsung posts internal statement regarding jury’s decision

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With all the statements we’ve been hearing about lately we’d be foolish to pass up on the opportunity to read Samsung’s take. They took to the Samsung Tomorrow blog to post an “internal” statement (we’re not sure how that works with this being out in the public and all) and it basically comes down to this: we’re disappointed this happened, and we’re going to be trying to appeal to the courts and go through the legal motions that come with such a significant case.

They mentioned their legal success against Apple in countries like Germany, Korea, and the United Kingdom in efforts to show that, despite today’s United States ruling, there are many other countries that think Samsung’s actions were harmless and that Apple’s cases were a bit frivolous.

Regardless, Samsung has a lot more to do than just release a statement so they’ll likely be getting the appeals process in motion while we’ll be at the edge of our seats waiting for the next major development in one of the most important lawsuits in all of technology. Read the statement in full below.

On Friday, August 24, 2012, the jury verdict in our trial against Apple was announced at the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The following is an internal memo that reflects Samsung’s position regarding the verdict:

 

 

We initially proposed to negotiate with Apple instead of going to court, as they had been one of our most important customers. However, Apple pressed on with a lawsuit, and we have had little choice but to counter-sue, so that we can protect our company.

 

Certainly, we are very disappointed by the verdict at the US District Court for the Northern District of California (NDCA), and it is regrettable that the verdict has caused concern amongst our employees, as well as our loyal customers.

 

However, the judge’s final ruling remains, along with a number of other procedures. We will continue to do our utmost until our arguments have been accepted.

 

The NDCA verdict starkly contrasts decisions made by courts in a number of other countries, such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and Korea, which have previously ruled that we did not copy Apple’s designs. These courts also recognized our arguments concerning our standards patents.

 

History has shown there has yet to be a company that has won the hearts and minds of consumers and achieved continuous growth, when its primary means to competition has been the outright abuse of patent law, not the pursuit of innovation.

 

We trust that the consumers and the market will side with those who prioritize innovation over litigation, and we will prove this beyond doubt.

Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

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42 Comments

  1. I cried. Go samsung go. I got your back. Now hurry up and release the Galaxy note 2 so I can buy (yet another) Samsung Galaxy phone. :)

  2. Samsung translation = Haters gonna hate apple we’re still the bomb.

  3. Get a competent legal team together who knows how to present evidence and get documents filed on time and kick Apple in the nuts.

    1. And a change of venue next time instead of behind enemy lines.

      1. yeah, most court cases don’t happen that close where the crimes were commited do to jury contamination. 10 miles away from Apple and some how everyone thought this would be fair? Using Koh as the judge, and somehow this would be fair?

  4. Apple is an American company so chances for Apple to win on home turf is greatly increased to the point of being biased against Samsung. Although I disagree with the verdict personally, Samsung’s devices and TouchWiz interface do most closely resemble Apple’s products in comparison to other Android manufacturers. My recommendation to Samsung is to scrap many of the TouchWiz features and use more of an Android stock OS. This will still give Samsung a good choice for customization, but it also helps to keep the system leaner and release updates much faster. I’m biased personally when it comes to manufacturer skins on OSs since I am using a Nexus device and I am pleasantly happy with it.
    I am glad I did not have to sit on this jury, and my assumption is that this verdict is supposed to set a statement against many foreign firms who copy domestic innovation. This already happened in the automobile industry in the 1980s when Japanese companies tried to penetrate the North American market and overwhelmlingy succeeded if one looks at Detroit, which is turning into a ghost town because American manufacturers are forced to move to Mexico in order to keep prices low. Though I am not living in the U.S. I don’t want to see the same thing happening to Silicon Valley.


    1. My recommendation to Samsung is to scrap many of the TouchWiz features and use more of an Android stock OS.”

      This. A thousand times this. Does Samsung really think anyone buys their phones because it has touchwiz?

      1. They like the idea of branding their own hardware with software (bloatware in my opinion) I am sure there are some good feature to TouchWiz (at least I hop there are, I’ve never owned anything but Nexi devices for a good reason)

        1. Must say after i replaced a few widgits i can’t tell TouchWiz from stock Android. It was a small worry when i bought the SG3 after Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus and i’m still not aware of the difference after some time. If someone can tell what it does compared to stock Android i’d like to know. Another thing i don’t understand is the “bounce back” patent from Apple that has been discussed lately. Should i be worried that i’d lose anything if it was removed from the SG3? :-)

    2. You are a moron. More Jap car companies build their cars in the States then the “domestic” brands. The major difference is they are non-union. Unions have runined this country’s manufacturing footprint. They had their place back in the 40’s but times have changed. And Apple doesn’t build crap in the States, they give everything to China. And they hide all their money offshore so they don’t have to pay all the taxes they should. Apple didn’t invent anything, they just stole everyone else’s ideas and sent them to China to be built.

      1. There is nothing wrong with the premise of a union. They are not “outdated”. As a matter of fact the question you should ask is “why am I not able to negotiate the same benefits that a union is.” Explain why they are outdated please. Unions have their place, there is nothing wrong with collective bargaining power. What is wrong is that both sides in the auto industry knew the benefits were unsustainable. yet still agreed. All those retirees are still making their money, its just the suckers behind them that are getting screwed. Large Corporations in the United States are making record profits and have been for years. Anything “trickle” down to you yet?
        As far as Apple goes, they have a business strategy, executed it well. They do buy some of the parts from American Manufacturers. What they Apple Corporation is doing, is no different than any other large multinational. Move your money where it pays the least tax. Matter of fact most Americans have the same strategy. WHy are they the bad guys. Shouldn’t the bad guys here be the TAX CODE itself. Wouldn’t it be better to close the loopholes, rather than pointing at the outcomes and saying, these large corporations are hiding money legally, and they are bad bad bad bad people.( cause corps are people now right). NO THEY ARE EXPLOITING BAD TAX CODE JUST LIKE EVERY ONE DOES> IS IT RIGHT? no, but it is legal.

        1. The sad truth is that richer governments are still charging higher taxes, especially because there are other costs involved such as higher wages of government employees, higher costs for contracting the construction and maintenance of infrastructure and so on. I completely agree with you that taxes are one very strong reason why companies go abroad, the other one is dirt cheap labour. The main reason to produce in the western world is protection of theft of intellectual property. Maybe Apple deserved to get “copied” since they are manufacturing in low wage countries, but still asking premium prices from their customers.

      2. First of all thanks for the personal insult (sarcasm in case you don’t get it). Second Germany has the strongest unions in the world, to the point that unions have as much power in the boardroom as the CEO and Chair of the Board do. How come do German Automobile manufacturers not face the same problem? It’s not only unions that pushed the U.S. automotive industry to this point. Apple didn’t invent anything? I’d disagree, Apple might have copied their fair share, but since many companies failed to invest heavily into their inventions, Apple took the risk, Apple didn’t invent the Graphical User Interface (GUI) but Apple made it popular, by taking the risk of only offering a GUI OS, Xerox who was the first one playing around with a GUI could have taken this step themselves, but they decided to play conservative, so Apple took the chance. Again, I disagree with the court ruling, especially considering that Apple should have been hit this hard 28 years ago when they “copied” the GUI of Xerox.

      3. The real problem is the lack of “right to work” laws in some states. People should have the right to belong to a union if they want to but they should also have the right not to.

  5. The verdict saddened me greatly. These patents should never have been granted. Multitouch gestures have been around for many years and are the result of decades of research including the use of pinch to zoom 30 years ago. That Apple can patent this technology when it’s combined with a clock is ridiculous.
    Rounded rectangles? That’s a shape, you shouldn’t be able to patent a shape and there were many examples of it before the iPhone.
    I suppose there was no choice for the jury other than to agree that patents such as rounded rectangles were indeed broken by Samsung, but these patents should NEVER have been granted. Ever. There needs to be an urgent review of the patent system both in the United States and Worldwide.

    1. Samsung’s strategy should have been proving the patents in quuestion were invalid, instead of trying to prove they didn’t copy.

      1. Would have been the safer strategy in court and it could have actually worked, but Samsung is also worried about their marketing department and how people perceive the company. It wouldn’t make Samsung look good to admit that they have copied Apple.

      2. there were a lot of things Judge Koh wouldn’t allow Samsung to do.

      3. They tried to

    2. Agreed, btw I am running to the patent office tomorrow and file a patent for sharp 90 edged angles so I can sue Apple for stealing my patent on their whole product lineup :P

  6. Maxamillion itscompetition not to mention that Apple does not give any money to the American economy when the government ask them to bring back their company To the I.s to help stir the economy they basically said they do not owe america jack… yea they have so much money but can’t take a little loss to help my country if you care about America as much as you say then yyou would understand . Because I like in america and america was born on competition not monopolies.. Detroit is a sad example of something made cheaper somewhere else in which greed causes companies to only care for themselves and not the economy. Silicon valley will not crumble but in all its a sad realization that we need to rethink how we are going to pull ourselves out of the hole we are in instead of drive ourselves deeper into it.

    1. Sigh, The United States of America was not formed on competition. If you love this country as much as you say you do, then you should know this.
      A good place to start is the Preamble to our Constitution. This is but one paragraph but it gives us the basic reasons. If we look closely at this we can judge some of the statements thrown around about what is and isn’t American.“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”The reasons are clear:Form a more perfect unionEstablish justiceInsure domestic tranquilityProvide for the common defensePromote the general welfareSecure the blessings of liberty to allNowhere does it say anything about religion or competition
      It might be a good idea to rethink your statement. Apple gives plenty to the United States. I find it funny that you think a company should forgo profits for the social good. Not that I am against it. It just
      very rarely happens. And not with this company. But they have a right to do it. I am not saying its right. Just lawful.

  7. The u.s not l.s and live not like sorry typos

  8. lol did Samsung copy all my posts and put this together it sounds like something i would of said in a comment about the case. Samsung Pwns >.>

  9. I’d love to see how many posters who say go apple are really apple workers and interns for the company

  10. I am going to follow the procedure to request the US PTO re-examine the existing patents as I believe they are invalid and should never have been allowed. I asked the USPTO for the procedure, and this is their response. I suggest you all take a stand too. Tx Mark.

    Third party submissions with respect to issued patents are limited to submissions under 37 CFR 1.501 or requests for reexamination. See 37 CFR 1.501 and the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) Chapters 2200 (for § 1.501 submission and ex parte reexamination information) and 2600 (for inter partes reexamination information).

    Hyperlinks:
    MPEP Chapter 2200 – http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/documents/2200.htm
    MPEP Chapter 2600 – http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/documents/2600.htm

  11. I soooo hope this turns into bad PR for apple. I really don’t care about iProducts and iSheeps and it has always been that way. But when they start stomping their feet into my sandbox then its on.

    Lets see how many more apple machines I can phase out of my office. “nope sorry we’re not supporting that right now you’re getting a pc instead. yeah no you don’t have a choice because I out rank you”.

    1. While I support your mission I must point out that macs ARE PCs.
      I laugh everytime applites say PCs suck when they’re missing the fact that’s are personal computers too.

  12. Go Samsung! Let us Android fans stand up for it wherever we can on all news stories around the internets. This is not a victory for consumers. I hope this gets resolved soon before Blackberry and Windows gains any steam. However, I would imagine that Apple would go after whoever out innovates them and starts making them look 2nd rate.

  13. I will never, ever purchase another Samsung product.

    I’m so disappointed with Samsung.

    Copy cats should not be allowed to profit from a few months of work when the original innovator spends years in research and development. Apple took incredible risks when it
    launched the iPhone and iPad.

    Apple deserves to have its patents protected

    Samsung is unethical and their denial of the facts is truly disgusting. The most reprehensible thing about Samsung, is that they don’t acknowledge their guilt, or even express remorse about their thievery.

    Bye Bye Samsung, your products are no longer on my list to consider when making a purchase. We just bought a new refrigerator. I told the Sears sales lady that I didn’t even want to look at the Samsung.

    1. Let me sum up your argument. Samsung did the same things that everyone in the industry does. Apple took no risks when they launched the IPhone or the IPad. They simply gave the public what they were looking for at the time. The Phone industry was already heading this way. Apple put together a better package, with Samsung’s help.
      A smarter person would shop based on legit reviews of what he is purchasing, paired with a healthy understanding of what the product they are purchasing is intended for. Not by a brand name. You sir obviously fall into the Brand category.

    2. Oh you told that Sears person. Big deal. You probably never intended on buying a “Samsung refrigerator” in the first place. Who goes to Sears to buy anything but their brand anyways? Your rant reeks of being passive aggressive.

      Apple took no risks with the iphone. There was a large gap within the mobile community. Winmoble sucked and the other companies hadn’t really nailed down a good mobileOS in years.

      The ipad was just an iphone in a larger case. True story. All they did was take the internals, with the same OS and slap a larger screen on it (that someone else was already making anyways). The ipad was a smart product, but not a risk. Apple does the bare minimum now to release a “new” product. Iphone5 will be a spec bump with a new proc, 1GB ram and maybe a larger screen, even though Jobs said that no one wants “SUV sized screens”. Basically, apple will fall in line behind other devs for their new iphone. The next gen ipad will be based on the iphone5, utilizing the same components other than a larger screen. Again, Apple does the bare minimum and hasn’t innovated in years. iOS5 is a joke. OSX is a joke now. FCPX hahah. Itunes, bloated. QuicktimeX still buggy as hell. Safari.. it’s not chrome. Etc.

  14. I dont fully disagree with the outcome. While I agree with the claims that Samsung violated Apples patents (be honest here people), thoses said patents should’ve been invalidated during this trial due to prior art. You know, prior art, the section the jurors decided to skip over because it was slowing them down…….

    The Judge should be “Honorable” and call for a mistrial.

  15. Who wants to put money down that all 12 jurors had a iPhone? I got a 4 grand on all 12.

    1. I’ll take that bet…

      …since there were only nine jurors.

      Pay up.

      1. FTW lol

      2. Lol I’d take that bed simply for the fact that Android has 50ish % marketshare, iOS only has 30ish % LOL. But Apple might have actually promised them silver Notebook if they take on their side :D.

    2. CNET actually has an article detailing the jurors, their occupation, if they own smart phones or tablets, and if so, which type they own. It was a pretty even spread in every instance. They even said one juror didn’t have a smart phone but had a Samsung TV and DVD player (as if it matters).

  16. I know for a FACT, that i can tell the difference between a Galaxy Tab and a iPad at even 50 feet! The shape is different! The fact that Samsung lawyers were not able to differentiate the 2 devices show’s that they are not competent to represent Samsung. They needs guys that understand the industry…..

    1. You are right, I am sorry if someone buys a Samsung Galaxy Tab and think s/he bought an iPad, this person should have not been allowed to have a drivers license to drive to the store in the first place.

  17. Just traded my wife’s iPhone in and bought 2 galaxy s3s. Galaxy s ownz any iPhone anyday

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