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Apple Loses Patent Battle Against Samsung In Japan – But The War Isn’t Over

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Just because Samsung wasn’t able to convince the tech-ignorant jury here in the states that they didn’t violate Apple software/hardware design patents, things are proving not so difficult overseas. In Japan, Samsung faces a similar suit after Apple claimed the Samsung Galaxy S, Galaxy Tab and Galaxy S II were violating a patent dealing with syncing of music and video to a PC. Yes, folks. Apple claims they invented sync. Apple was asking for $1.275 million in damages, and a ban of the offending devices. But you can’t pull a fast one on ‘ol Japan. Those guys were video chatting on their cellphones back when we were still using pagers.

The Tokyo District Court ruled today that Samsung didn’t, in fact, violate any of Apple patents, rightfully discerning that the specific technology used in this instance wasn’t entirely covered by Apple’s patent. Either it violates the patent on all counts, or it gets thrown out. Simple as that. If only the jury in San Jose was as privy. Of course, Apple can — and most likely will — file for an appeal, not to mention they still have another suit dealing once again, with their “bounce-back” patent. For the love of Go-Go Gadget, Apple. Just take your damn bouncy UI patent and shove it up your 30-pin connector already.

[Reuters | Bloomberg | Engadget]

Chris Chavez
I've been obsessed with consumer technology for about as long as I can remember, be it video games, photography, or mobile devices. If you can plug it in, I have to own it. Preparing for the day when Android finally becomes self-aware and I get to welcome our new robot overlords.

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41 Comments

  1. “For the love of Go-Go Gadget, Apple. Just take your damn bouncy UI patent and shove it up your 30-pin connector already”
    Okay, that made my day. Thank you very much and may God keep your USB connectors safe.. xD

    1. mine too! This is why Chris is my fav writer on this site!

  2. Watch it Chris. I for one never would have bought a first gen iPhone if it weren’t for that revolutionary bounce back feature. I mean, how else would I have known I’d reached the end of a page or menu? And I surely never dreamed of switching to android until they started copying that critical feature. That’s a 1 billion dollar patent if I ever saw one.

    1. Hmm. So Apple invented the bottom of a page too. They have magic skills. What haven’t they invented ;-)

      1. The Moon, that was Neil Armstrong. However, Apple did invent taking pictures of the moon so there is that.

      2. Apple invented inventing. If Edison were alive he’d be being sued right now for violating Apple’s patent for filing patents.

    2. Why does everybody freaking like this feature?!!? This is actually one of my top 3 pet peeves and is what first turned me off of apple products! And that checkered, uncoded QuickTime white-space on web pages? ugh.

  3. Lol of all lolzzzzz

  4. Apple sucks it Hard in the whole World except California, US

    1. Yeah right, that’s why the only place they sell millions of iPhones is in San Jose lol

  5. I would buy @chris chavez a beer… Just sayin.

  6. I pitty the poor fool who says in a tv interview:
    “Yea, it’s been tough for me recently, but I’ll bounce back”.

  7. Your the man chris

  8. We are missing a point here.
    Its not apple’s fault, without a stupid patent you can’t make stupid lawsuits.
    It is the patent office that’s goofing all the way to ffing Hell. Bounce back my ass!
    Pardon my Latin.

    1. Yeah, but the patent office can’t grant stupid patents if they aren’t applied for in the first place. Still Apple’s fault.

    2. You forget out Patent office is run by a bunch of special ed kids

    3. You can have stupid patents and still not sue like a bunch of jerks.

      1. This is the point where someone says “Don’t hate the player, hate the game”, and “You would do the same thing!”…

        To which I say, yes, I can hate the player because I wouldn’t do the same thing.

        1. Exactly….

    4. you go chris woot :)

    5. Agreed.

      People around here like to talk about how the judge and jury were biased, paid-off, “tech-ignorant,” or whatever. But the fact of the matter is that, technically, they did their job: Apple holds patents, and Samsung DID infringe, consciously in fact, whether we want to admit it or not. The judge and jury enforced the law.

      Would I have preferred a better ending? Yes, definitely. And one may still be coming via appeals. Should I actually expect a better ending, though? Probably not. Determining whether infringement occurred is the job of the judicial system, but determining the VALIDITY of a patent is the job of the USPTO.

      The issue is that the patents in question should never have been awarded in the first place. Without patents, there is no case. The system itself is what is screwed up. This has been a problem long before the iPhone came out.

      I wouldn’t go so far as to excuse Apple’s behavior, though. :) They’ve always been an EXTREMELY litigious company, and it’s always been extremely annoying.

  9. apple didn’t win any battle against samsung except in their home country, this tells something!!!

    1. They have common sense over there?

      1. No our court system is easy to rig with the right kinds of money and a biased judge that should have recused herself since she did legal work for appl prior to being a judge

        1. Talk about a reason to have the cased appealed.

  10. Don’t forget rectangles with rounded corners! Before the iPhone it was really hard to read the triangular display. Text kept getting smaller and smaller down the page, even if you did get that cool “star wars opening” effect when it scrolled up. But even then, the spiked corners and razor sharp edges made holding the phone nigh impossible. Thank the gods Apple had the ingenuity to round off the corners and edges, and give us a screen with a uniform width.

    They do say the most revolutionary idea seem obvious in retrospect.

    1. Indeed. I’m hoping that TV 7 keyboard manufacturers rip off their patent so I don’t cut my hands on them anymore!

    2. My old Sony Clie had a rounded rectangle

      1. That was a nice device back in the day.

    3. Put 2 of these together, and you have an iPad.

  11. I`m wondering, why Apple lost this time? I thought Apple own all the patents!!!!!! Oh, hold on for one second, they do own it all in the USA court only, lets take judge Lucy to the Japan court, so Apple wil win…. That`s a jok…

  12. haha one of your best editorials yet Chris.

  13. Oh man that picture makes me want to dust off my Phoenix Wright games and fire up my DS Lite. OBJECTION!!!

  14. O_o did chris just call the jurors tech-ignorant?
    sweet…

  15. Apple and their donkey ass patents only a paid off judge will side with them

    Kudos to Chris those tech ignorant or paid of jurors could grant apple the bullshit

  16. This proves that Japan has better knowledge of products

  17. Funny thing is, Apple has not sued any other tablet makers (that i know of) but they went after the big fish: Samsung.

  18. What can you say? Americans are morons.

  19. The Japanese judge have better sense than the stupid btch judge koh.

  20. They are becoming the butt of all jokes in the tech world.

  21. Wait what, foreign company lost to an american company in US court during economical crisis. I so didn’t see that coming.

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