[trezor]

Samsung makes eerily close copies of the iPhone

As a former iPhone-owner gone (Samsung) Android I resent that comment. iOS is a one-dimensional, inflexible and locked down platform which bored the hell out of me and this was the primary reason I went over to Android.

Android and Samsung's phone (the Galaxy S, which I have and which they are sueing for) is nothing like the iPhone and every single day I'm very happy for it.

[berberich]

Android the platform might be nothing like iOS, but Ir does appear that Samsung went out of its way to make their phones look like iPhones[1].

[1]: http://thisismynext.com/2011/04/19/apple-sues-samsung-analys...

[MatthewPhillips]

The article is well written but fails to point to any one particular phone that carries all of these iPhone similarities. A customer only buys one phone at a time.

[trezor]

To be fair, they look like any other smartphone which is black and has a touchscreen. Apple cannot be granted a patent on being black. Not even black with rounded corners. That's not how the world works.

And if we dig deeper, behind the PR-piece which Apple seemingly is winning (here on HN at least), lets compare the iPhone to Samsung F700, introduced in 2007, before the iPhone.

http://phandroid.com/2011/04/20/did-apple-really-steal-their...

I mean... It may not be all black and white, but lets not grant Apple a blanket-right to make rounded, glossy things and assume everyone else is stealing from them.

[berberich]

But that's the thing - Apple isn't trying to prevent anyone else from using rounded corners. Apple's claims in that suit are pretty specific, especially if you look at the similarity of the icons.

There are countless ways to represent an idea on an icon. Google, HTC, and others chose to go their own route - For TouchWiz, Samsung copied Apple's icons with slight modifications.

Also, the story about the F700 is inaccurate. SlashGear debunked it, pointing out that it was, in fact, announced after the iPhone was revealed in January 2007[1].

Nilay Patel, an intellectual property lawyer, wrote about the F700 too[2]:

> In many ways, the F700 does nothing but underline Apple’s overall contention: that there are thousands of ways to design and package a phone interface, but Samsung chose drop its differentiated interface and instead lift elements of Apple’s style for TouchWiz. I don’t think anyone would use the F700 interface and think it’s an iPhone, and I don’t think anyone using the iPhone today is thinking about the F700. But do people see TouchWiz and think “oh, that’s an iPhone?” That’s the most important thing when it comes to trade dress and trademark: what brand does the average consumer associate with certain design elements, phrases, and words?

[1]: http://www.slashgear.com/iphone-samsung-f700-prada-phone-rum...

[2]: http://thisismynext.com/2011/04/20/talk-picture-samsung-f700...

[onemoreact]

Umm, those are really not that similar.

IPhone does not have navigation elements at the bottom of the screen. It adds a text description under the elements vs. the top. It includes status information as ribbon across the top and does not plaster their logo on the screen anywhere. Also, none of the icons look similar, their screen is significantly diffrent shapes and even there buttons have different shapes. And most importantly I think the number of people that would confuse the two is tiny.

Not to mention one was released in Febuary and the other with a clearly better interface was released four months later.

[saddino]

Actually, that's exactly how the world works.

Design patents and trade dress protection can indeed protect the look of a product, even a color from use by competitors, e.g. Tiffany's defends its "robin's egg blue" color used to sell jewelry: http://www.scribd.com/doc/102788/tiffany-v-ebay-III

[AllenKids]

Apple certainly thinks very different, and the court will decide, won't it?

[poppysan]

I think they are merely trying to intimidate a competitor...

[AllenKids]

What you think is not important in the court.

I too think these kind of lawsuits are boring as hell, luckily there is a system to sort it out, it may not be perfect, but that's what we've got and a whole lot better than a flamewar.

[poppysan]

I never intended my opinion to be law, just my own view. No flamewar on my side...

[AllenKids]

Oh, I'm not accusing you of that.

It's just how things supposed to be handled, Apple and Samsung are all big boys. We as costumers really should not be bothered with their petty squabble to be honest. Nothing drastic will come out of this case.