Upcoming Apple vs Samsung patent trial (2014 edition) is already looking bad for Samsung
The trial hasn’t even started, but before either parties in the ongoing “Apple vs Samsung” patent trial could go head-to-head, a federal judge has already thrown out one of Samsung’s claims and ruled against another. Not a good sign.
Judge Lucy Koh threw out Samsung’s “multimedia synchronization method and device” infringement claim, based on the grounds that the patent should have never been granted in the first place. Apparently, an earlier patent dealing with “acquisition and synchronization of digital media to a personal information space” was enough for Judge Koh to side with Apple on this one.
Judge Koh also ruled against Samsung’s denial that they in no way infringed on Apple’s autocomplete claim described as a “method, system, and graphical user interface for providing word recommendations.” Yes, folks. Apple was able to patent autocomplete in virtual keyboards. It’s not difficult to see how this provides, not only a potentially huge problem for Samsung, but just about any other manufacturer using the Android OS in their devices (or even their own/3rd party software keyboards). A slippery slope, indeed.
For those keeping score, Apple now has 5 patents they’ll be bringing with them to court, while Samsung is officially down to 4. The court date for yet another long, and drawn out patent trial is set for March 31st, 2014. Get the popcorn ready.
[iSource | FOSS Patents]