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Bad news for Samsung coming out of the International Trade Commission today. ITC Judge Thomas Pender found the South Korean manufacturer guilty of violating 4 Apple patents in a complaint filed by back in 2011. Originally 7 disputed patents, one was dropped by Apple, with another 2 being dismissed today. The patents now in question deal with a variety of UI interactions like switching applications, or scrolling up or down, as well as displaying a semi-transparent image on top of another. Yes, this is what it’s come to, folks.
Now it’s up to the ITC’s full panel of judges to come to a decision in February on whether or not to uphold Jude Pender’s ruling. The alleged Samsung devices initially found guilty of violating Apple’s patents are the now ancient Captivate, Transform, Fascinate and Galaxy Tab.
Also making headlines, a Dutch court has cleared Samsung of any wrongdoing dealing with Apple’s multi-touch patent. This isn’t the first time the Netherlands has ruled in favor of Samsung, rejecting Apple’s request to ban the Samsung Galaxy Tab last year.
You may remember a small-ish Samsung victory from yesterday dealing with Apple’s ‘381 bounce-back patent after the USPTO rejected the patent. Still far too early to begin popping bottles, the rejection doesn’t mean the patent was found invalid, and will still have to undergo further scrutiny under the reexamination process.
[Reuters, 1, 2 | Bloomberg | TheVerge]
Apple has a patent on scrolling up and down? … Really?
*headdesks so hard his brains explode out of his ears*
If it involves putting your finger to a screen, they INVENTED IT. Even the finger. O_o
Inertial scrolling was demonstrated at least as early as 1992: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CsTH9S79qI&t=4m25s
Looks like an Apple employee to me.
Isn’t that Steve Jobs? Lol
It’s James Gosling, father of Java.
Looks like prior art to me.
Lol
Well to clarify.. they didn’t invent it. That’s already been established. They were the first to patent it. I will say that what Apple lacks in innovation, they were sure brilliant enough to know to have “patent parties” (with punch and pie) where their employees sat down and wrote down any and every “feature” out there
Samsung may rethink in using their Dutch lawyers in the states.
I think it’s more about the judge than lawyers…. Only in the US is Apple winning anything, i wonder why.
yeah, its pretty funny that the USA is really the ONLY place that apple is really winning. They have had some small vicories elsewhere, but they are killing it here! F@ck our bullsh!t legal system!
This getting tired sum, Apple cannot own every single feature, what will that do to other phones.It’s not just Samsung in danger.
It’s tiresome and yeah, the old destroy the competition is at play here.
I don’t know how the USPTO operates but I do know that it should be blown up and restarted from scratch.
Wait wait wait…. So Apple has a patent on scrolling up/down, multitasking and transparent layers….? You’ve gotta be kidding me. Fire everyone at the patent office and rehire staff with some common sense…
Also fix your title. Article says 4 patents, title says 2.
Sh*t you’re right. Fixed. And thank you.
Np
it must be a iJoke from iCorrupt iTC”
It’s so true, I’m on Windows Vista, and the AERO theme has Opaque placholders where it’s supposed to be transparent (you remember Microsoft’s admission that it had this great idea – maybe see through window tops – but just… couldn’t… remember what that idea was…), so it’s good that Apple ‘invented it’, I mean, you don’t see that every day on Vista and Win7, do you?
Also, these old versions of Windows only run on single core, and I waited for years for them to utilize the mutli-cores on Intel processors to no avail. Good thing Apple invented multitasking, because now Microsoft can add that to Windows and we will finally get those multi-cores working.
And, THANKS APPLE, for inventing up/down scrolling, that’s neat.
Now I go back to my old Vista operating system and programs that can only scroll horizontally….
When will Apple realise that they’re really damaging their name now with even their most die hard fans (it’s been long f**ked up with us lot of course).
Are they just stuck in this game, where they’re fighting on so many fronts, for so long that they just don’t know how to call it quits any longer?
How do the top brass at these companies find the time to look at product developments when every day they must get several lawsuits briefings.
This is one of the big reasons I am moving away from apple. I think patents should be respected but some of these just seem silly and I don’t want to support it. Sure defend unique ideas but mainly innovate.
I’m against patents as they stifle innovation.
Someone / A team come up with an idea, then other have to find ways of achieving the same thing but in a different way which is a complete waste of time.
Instead of being selfish, the ideas should be shared so everyone can benefit from them, incorporate them into their own products/services and then spend their time on the next problem or ways of improving previous designs.
But in a capitalist system engineers time is consistently wasted and ideas held back until they’ll make the financial sense.
Wouldn’t everyone be guilty of that patent? Lyk every phone in the Milky Way? I mean aren’t those normal stuff?
It’s like someone having a patent for the little knob that turns your speedometer. Not the needle, or the speedometer itself. The little knob that it’s attached too. You can’t really patent that since it’s needed to work. I don’t get how they even won these patents.
I get this message a lot on the phandroid news app……. why is that?
why even bring this thing up when the final ruling will be decided by a panel of judges early next year? with apple patents being invalidated and verdicts going samsungs way lately, i wouldnt be surprised to see this thing go samsungs way
One day people will realize Apple’s innovations died when Jobs died. Just have to hold out.
there is no Apples innovation…….ever ;)
tablets and touch phones had been long before Apple ;)
Apple just should patent iSheep behaviour of their clients who are able to buy these iStuffs
come on now ur just a fan boy. I love android and hate apple with everything i got, but your have to be REAL man. Apple changed the smartphone game and there really is no denying that… they havent done much since that time, but they are the ones that really brought us into the touchscreen phone era (well, one that we actually wanted to use)
what i dont get about this patent crap, apple vs samsung, why are apple just suing samsung? apart from being the biggest competitor. i think, apple should get sued for following a trend in releasing the mini.
This is so fucking stupid…they invented scrolling up and down? Pictures of transparency? Switching apps? What the hell?!…how the hell did this even get granted patents. They definitely weren’t the first to incorporate that. Smh