Hasta La Gadget!

Though Samsung has already won the similar cases in several countries around the world, their battle with Apple on the similarities between their Galaxy tablet and the iPad rages on – and they’ve invited Steve Jobs to defend them. A set of quotes that Samsung intended on using to defend themselves in regards to the late Apple leader’s “thermonuclear war” against Google’s mobile OS. However as of this week, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, heading up this case, has barred the use of any and all Steve Jobs quotes from being used in the courtroom.

Apple’s case here, like it has been in several countries around the world over the past few months, is that the Samsung Galaxy Tab lineup is too similar to the iPad to legally be allowed for sale. In this US court case they’ve been successful in getting a preliminary injunction against the tablet line, specifically the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in this case, to bar it from sale until the case is complete. Samsung’s defense was up until this week going to be made in part with the Jobs quote written by Walter Isaacson which goes as follows:

“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong, I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.” – Jobs

Samsung had intended to speak in court on how the quote “speaks to Apple’s bias, improper motives and its lack of belief in its own claims in that they are a means to an end, namely the destruction of Android.” Apple contended that the quotes are simply a distraction to the case and are irrelevant on the whole. Judge Koh agreed, saying, “I really don’t think this is a trial about Steve Jobs.”

This case is set to begin on July 30th – have a peek at the timeline below to see what other countries have ruled on similar cases.

Steve Jobs “war” on Android barred from Samsung/Apple US trial is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Earlier today it was announced that after ruling the Samsung Galaxy Tab not “cool” enough to be mistaken for an iPad, a UK judge has demanded that Apple place “an advertisement” for Samsung declaring the result for all to see. This judgement has, as expected, been appealed by Apple and has been granted the right to take the case to the court of appeal by the same Judge Birss that presided over this main case. In the event this ruling stands, Apple will have to pay for notices in the Daily Mail, Financial Times, Guardian Mobile magazine, and T3 as well as displaying a notice on Apple.com that the Samsung tablet does not infringe on Apple’s registered designs.

This is by far the most notable of results from the series of Apple vs Samsung cases that have been ruled upon over the past few months. The Galaxy Tab was for a while blocked from sales in Germany, in Australia the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been found not guilty of infringing on the design of the iPad, and a Dutch court released a statement which included the following:

“Following the statement from Apple that its model attractive ‘minimalistic’ or ‘tight’ shape, is judge noted that “minimalist” design basically means that the contours are followed as defined by technology and ergonomics of the device are dictated and in determining the scope of this model, technical or other practical / ergonomic elements be disregarded. Considered further given that the backs and sides of the Galaxy Tabs 10.1v and 10.1 differ from those of the Apple model, the judge concluded that the Samsung tablet a different overall impression than that model, so there is no of breach” Dutch court documentation.” (machine-translated)

Meanwhile Apple is still in the middle of a case here in the USA with a preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 standing even after a Samsung appeal. As for this most recent ruling in the UK, it remains unclear as to how Apple and Samsung will handle the situation.

The appeal mentioned above for this UK case deals with the original claim against Samsung rather than the advertisment-based penalty, but we’re sure Apple is a bit more than a little conscious of how negative the ads could be for their cases still pending around the world.

Stay tuned as we await the proceedings!

[via Bloomberg]

Apple to appeal Samsung “advertisement” court ruling is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A German court has tossed out a case which pitted Apple’s iPad against Motorola’s first Android tablet, the XOOM, noting that they were not similar enough to warrant moving the case forward. Apple was seeking to ban the sale of the Motorola XOOM throughout the European Union with this case, but all proceedings have been cut pending an appeal by the prosecution. Both companies have 30 days to appeal the verdict to a higher court, but its expected that the case will end here.

The Motorola XOOM was originally released back in February of 2011 without a publicly spoken word by Apple at the time. Since then, it seems, German courts have moved forward to see the case Apple had raised sometime between then and now that sought to call out the tablet computer on its similarities to the iPad. The verdict was processed and read Tuesday that the court in the city of Dusseldorf rejected the request also of Motorola to declare Apple’s Community design rights for the iPad invalid.

Apple’s claimed Community design rights cover the distinctive appearance of industrial design products of all kinds. Have a peek at the timeline below to see additional court cases surrounding the iPad, most of them dealing with Samsung rather than Motorola. Expect additional court proceedings to go similar to this case around the world, if they do pop up, with Motorola coming out on top.

[via SacBee]

iPad vs Motorola XOOM court case tossed is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week the folks at Facebook and Yahoo have been reported to be settling things between one another in regards to a collection of patent suits that were being fired at one another earlier this year. According to sources close to the dealings speaking with AllThingsD, a deal will be announced later today in which no money will change hands, somehow or another. Instead it seems that a strategic deal has been met and will be working with joint online advertising sales and patent cross-licensing.

When Yahoo sued Facebook back in March, the former said that the latter had infringed on 10 patents, some of which included bits on online advertising technology. This situation prompted Yahoo to claim that Facebook was “one of the worst performing sites for advertising” before they started using Yahoo-owned ideas.

Facebook responded with a lawsuit just a month later, claiming that Yahoo was prioritizing “litigation over innovation” and that Yahoo’s claims were bogus. Now it seems that the two have shaken hands in favor of moving beyond the situation entirely! Stay tuned for more as the full extent of the situation is revealed (or so we expect) later today.

Facebook and Yahoo tipped to settle lawsuit is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week has been a bad one for the lawyers in charge of keeping Samsung’s mobile products on the shelves as not only the Galaxy Tab 10.1 but the Galaxy Nexus have now had bids to end their preliminary sales ban in two separate Apple court cases. Apple is currently working on legal suits against Samsung in regards to alleged patent infringement and has won preliminary sales bans on both the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy Nexus in the USA until the court cases take place. In other words – good luck trying to find either device for sale in the USA until the cases are resolved.

Just yesterday it was ruled that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 preliminary sales ban would be upheld despite protest by Samsung. Now with the Galaxy Nexus held up until its own case is resolved, Samsung finds itself in a bit of a precarious situation with a whole lot of product sitting in the back room with no legal means for sales.

“Samsung is disappointed with the court’s decision that denied our motion to stay. We believe today’s ruling will ultimately reduce the availability of superior products to consumers in the United States.

We will continue to pursue an appeal of the GALAXY Nexus preliminary injunction, which we filed on July 2 to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Meanwhile, we are also working closely with Google to resolve this matter, as the patent in question concerns Google’s unified search function.” – Samsung spokesperson

Have a peek at the Samsung Galaxy Nexus timeline we’ve got sitting below to see the short history of this case as well as some of the fabulous hands-on posts this device has been getting into as of late. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is Google’s current hero phone showing off their latest Android operating system version 4.1 codename Jelly Bean, complete with advanced search functions as well as voice recognition to go with it. We’re fully expecting the Nexus 7 to also fall under this Apple patent umbrella as the iPad has similar functionality – we shall see!

UPDATE: It’s being reported that Samsung and Google will also be seeking to implement a software patch that will take out “local” results in its updated voice search to help get the Galaxy Nexus out of this jam. Hopefully this update isn’t true – we’ve been loving the hot Google Now action we’ve seen thus far!

[via TNW]

Galaxy Nexus sales ban to stay until further notice is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.