Hasta La Gadget!

Apple and Samsung are gearing up for one of their largest legal battles to date, which centers around their devices looking incredibly similar. But before things can start, they still need to agree on where to sit in court—which is proving more complicated than you might expect. More »

Say what you will about the state of patent disputes in America these days. There are of course companies that specialize in securing patents for the sole purpose of suing companies who end up actually putting those ideas to some sort of commercial use, and then there are frivolous battles between competing manufacturers. And finally, the minority of cases involve actual theft of intellectual property. But regardless of the circumstances, it’s always cool when these cases shed insights into the design process of a product.

Such has been the case with the rampant series of tablet-related patent lawsuits, many of which involve Apple (that’s of course because many of them have been filed by Apple). As a result, a lot of previously undisclosed information becomes part of the public record. For example, early prototypes of the iPad and iPhone have made their way through the court process, and are just beginning to be filtered through to the mainstream media.

As part of a series of court documents, Apple has released a bunch of images of prototype versions of the iPad. It seems the most common feature among early renditions of the device included a kickstand to encourage docile playback of videos and music. There is also an early 16:9 widescreen model as well as a unit with handles on either side of the tablet device. In other words, Apple went through a lot of design possibilities before settling on the iPad we know and love today. More can be seen in the “via” link below.

[via The Verge]

Apple iPad prototypes revealed in court docs is written by Mark Raby & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple’s continued disputes with Samsung reach new levels next week when yet another trial kicks off. But this time, Apple plans to argue its case using a raft of internal Samsung documents that openly admit that the company mimicked the iPhone—and was even warned off doing so by Google. More »

Just five days before the trial will take place between Apple and Samsung over a collection of patents and possible device design infringements, Samsung has been accused of failing to avoid auto-deleting email evidence. In this case it appears that Apple is seeking evidence which would have been in Samsung’s email archives if Samsung had not had a “rolling basis” for deleting old documents. U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal agreed with Apple’s request that jurors should be informed that they can draw “adverse inference” from Samsung’s failure to avoid deleting the files in question.

As both Apple and Samsung are two of the largest device creators in today’s $219 billion dollar mobile industry, it stands to reason that even the smallest detail will be analyzed in this case which has the two at arms with one another. The instructions that have been handed to the jury before the trial begins appears to say with some certainty that there were indeed documents that Apple said existed and that Samsung did indeed have them auto-deleted rather than saving them specifically.

“Rather than building itself an off-switch — and using it — in future litigation such as this one, Samsung appears to have adopted the alternative approach of ‘mend it don’t end it. Samsung’s mend, especially during the critical seven months after a reasonable party in the same circumstances would have reasonably foreseen this suit, fell short of what it needed to do.” – Grewal

Grewal’s instructions for the jury included the following:

“Samsung has failed to prevent the destruction of relevant evidence for Apple’s use in this litigation. … The lost evidence was favorable to Apple. … You may choose to find it determinative, somewhat determinative, or not at all determinative in reaching your verdict.” – Grewal

Stay tuned as the Apple vs Samsung case begins on the 30th of this month here in the USA. Check the timeline below as well to keep up to date with everything that’s surrounded these two titans and their court cases with one another over the past few weeks.

[via Bloomberg]

Samsung accused of document destruction in US case vs Apple is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

One of the trials between Apple and Samsung has already kicked off in Australia, and day two of the case saw Apple arguing over its implementation of a 3G patent owned by Samsung. Samsung believes that Apple is infringing on the patetn, while Cupertino argues that while it does use the 3G standard, its implementation of the method is different than what Samsung has filed for. The patent relates to power management while using 3G data services.

Apple asserts that while it makes use of the 3G standard through Qualcomm’s baseband chips, Samsung has failed to identify what method the vendor has implemented. Samsung has seemingly claimed the patent is being infringed without knowing how it has been implemented in the iPhone 4, 4S, and iPad 2.

The company also denied claims that it had failed to negotiate with Samsung regarding FRAND licensing agreements. “Apple has not refused to negotiate with Samsung. Apple continues to be willing to negotiate on FRAND terms for Samsung’s standards essential patents, including the three involved in this suit.” Samsung, however, maintains that Apple isn’t playing ball. The company believes Apple has infringed on three patents relating to 3G, while Apple claims that the Galaxy tablet range falls foul of patents relating to touchscreens.

[via ZDNet]

Apple denies copying Samsung’s 3G homework is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.