Since the release of Apple Inc. Iphone and Ipad, Apple has faced a lot of legal battles over patents. One big battle Apple is involved with is Samsung. Apple has been in court and legal battles over Samsung’s Galaxy Tablet 10.1. Apple states that Samsung has duplicated their Ipad 2 platform and has asked that Samsung halt selling and releasing the tablet. So far Apple has won the battle in Australia and at the time has stopped production of the tablet. These rulings are hurting Samsung’s tablet sales and the company was worried it would not be able to sale their tablet during the holidays. Already banned to sell their tablet in Australia and Germany, Samsung decided to release the tablet a little different and change the outer shell of the tablet. This was called the Galaxy tablet 10.1N. Apple then tried to ban this unit, still in germany. However, the german courts ruled that the change was significant change to rule against Apple. This allowed Samsung to release the tablet for the holidays. A Minor win for Samsung. However, the battle still continues all over the world as Apple continues to Ban the Tablet in other countries. In South Korea, the battle continues to heat up and not looking good for Apple.
In My opinion, this battle should have ended long ago when Samsung offered to pay Apple patent and licensing fees to end this war. Apple is still trying to protect it’s patent and is appealing the german courts ruling. As an Apple Employee, I really didn’t see the big difference but wished this war would end soon.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/02/01/samsung-finally-wins-patent-battle-against-apple/
Another Legal battle Apple was involved in was with HTC. The case against HTC was regarding 20 odd patents. Some of the patents were the unlocking of the screen, Touch base screen, and multi-tasking. I’ll have to admit reading some of the patents that are listed in this case I had no idea was patented. During this battle it was speculated that Apple was after HTC to take down Android which was rumored that Apple was at war with. So, with the battle going on Apple the ITC allowed only 4 to hold up in court. Out of these four rulings, apple had a victory of one of them. This ban from their phones will start on April 19, 2012. So, what was the patent ruled against? It was Patent 647, which relates to the technology when a user clicks on a phone number in an e-mail and or text it calls the individual.
So this battle went from 20 to 4, and apple only won 1. HTC said they will take that design out of it’s phones and considers it not a big deal. Once again, in my opnion, it wasn’t a big victory in Apple’s favor, but hey sometimes it’s always good to protect your gold.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/6169441/Apple-in-narrow-win-in-suit-vs-HTC
The last battle Apple is going through now is Motorola. Currently apple lost this legal battle over patent infringement in Germany. The ban circles around 3G patent related. This has caused Apple to remove the sale of the Iphone 3G, All Ipad 3g models and Iphone 4. With the win on the 3G patent, Motorola has filed suit again seeking an injunction against the Iphone 4S and the ICloud. The lawsuit cites six patents which Motorola used against other Apple devices in the same court. Because of the time frame of the release, Motorola could not include it in it’s first suit.
This is lawsuit is bad news. The ban of 3G model phones and IPads will hurt Apple’s sales for sure. Now Apple can redesign it’s phone to match or pay fees to Motorola to continue the sale of it’s product. At the current time Apple is appealing the ban but it could end up paying out. In my Opinion, pay out Apple!
http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/12/09/motorola.gets.german.win.blocking.iphone.3g.ipads/
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