If you haven't been paying attention to the ongoing court battle between Apple and Samsung, you're missing an epic conflict over patents and trademarks, both of which are often overlooked by entrepreneurs when attempting to launch a new product or service.
The dispute centers on Apple's claims that Samsung's products infringe upon its design patents. Per the latest in the conflict, a U.S. District judge ruled last Friday that Apple failed to meet its burden of showing a likelihood of irreparable harm in the injunction it sought against Samsung. As a result, Samsung, the world's largest consumer electronics company, now has the go ahead to continue selling its Galaxy S 4G, Infuse 4G, and Droid Charge phones and Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the U.S.
It's an early Christmas gift for Samsung, but winning a battle does not the war win, according to Christopher V. Carani, a partner in the intellectual property law firm of McAndrews, Held & Malloy and chair of the American Bar Association's Design Rights Committee. Here's what Carani has to say about this seven-month-old court fight and why business owners should pay attention to future skirmishes:
Preliminary injunctions are hard to win but do have impact. Apple had an uphill battle in persuading a judge to pull Samsung's targeted products off the shelves prior to the fact-finding discovery process and full trial based on the merits of Apple's claims. In this case, even though Samsung prevailed on the preliminary injunction, the motion created delay and uncertainty in Samsung's U.S. launch.
Apple's design patents strategy proved effective. Apple's strategy of applying for multiple design patents for the iPhone enabled it to protect itself and was effective in ensnaring Samsung's tablet and smartphone products.
Prior art searches to invalidate patents are critical. When someone claims your product violates their patent, you conduct a search for "prior art" -- that is, anything proving that a product or service existed prior to a given date. Samsung's saving grace in this latest round was that its litigation team located prior art references that undermined the validity of one of Apple's iPad design patents. What Samsung discovered was a 1994 Knight-Ridder video depicting a tablet newspaper of the future, which looks very similar to the iPad and Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.
While Samsung doesn't have to take its products off store shelves, the judge found in Apple's favor with respect to one of Apple's iPhone design patents. As a result, Apple has an excellent chance of obtaining a large damages award for that patent infringement as well as for lost profits from Samsung's sales of the Galaxy S 4G and Infuse 4.
Have you ever had to deal with a patent dispute? Tell us about your experience in the comments section below.
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Comments:
Apple's design patents strategy proved effective. Apple's strategy of applying for multiple design patents for the iPhone enabled it to protect itself and was effective in ensnaring Samsung's tablet and smartphone products. Right as rain. Apple consistently patented its products which lead to greater protection for their brand. Consistently smart moves by apple, well done.
I can't believe this is an issue. As a company Samsung is far better than Apple. Samsung has been making the most innovative technology for several years, including cars. If you think Apple TV will be a big hit, take a look at the OLED TV's South Korea is producing. It's glass thin and plays great quality picture. Apple is just stupid. The real reason why APple is popular is because of the simplicity to use its products and the smoothness and stability of its OS. No one can deny Apple wins the battle with smartphone OS and computer OS. But other than that, Apple has nothing else. Innovative? No, they just use old features that weren't widely known by the population and brag about it even though other companies had it for a long time (ie. 4S having 8MP camera when Droids had it on their worst phones for over year and a half... and Siri existed for about a year or two. Apple just bought it, put it on the iPhone 4, put a dual core processor, and resold it for the same original price. They're ripping you off. Also, LG and Samsung share ideas and innovations to keep competition at its highest. Apple is suing every company out there for "copying their idea." Apple has no chance. If they want to keep this up, Samsung, LG, HTC, Motorola, Google, Daewoo, even Telecomm will go against them. When it comes to losing the iPhone or the Android, ALL cell phone carrier companies will stick with the Droid because of higher profitability.
I would love to know more about being a supplier for Walmart. I would like to put My latent water on the shelf
Great one. I learned no matters what is going on, but it is important you to get a best one..
Hi Mikal! Well explained. I like your way of explanation. Good informative post.
This aspect of the business world strikes me as a great arena for game theorists to play. If preliminary injunctions are so difficult to come by, then a patent violater might be incented to go ahead anyway, under the belief that the earnings received up until something being finalized can be retained, or at least partially.
Apple's battle with Samsung brought to light the importance of patents and with more start-ups having their products manufactured overseas, owning patents becomes a larger consideration. Btw, the ban on Samsung Galaxy Tab in Australia has been lifted.
One thing that apple has to be taken care about is that whenever anything release for the people interest then think for all people's choices as provide the thing in different colour and pattern for the same product that every person can get that thing as per their demand and this is the thing that apple miss out and now samsung has move ahead in the path! But not worry so much as apple will find its way again and will move at the right direction of success again. Anyway thanks for sharing such nice article with us.