TomTom loses latest round in Garmin dispute

by Evan Blass, posted Nov 2nd 2006 at 12:47PM

So it looks like it won't be a Garmin-free European Christmas for TomTom after all: despite the Dutch manufacturer's claim that its American rival has been copying the design of its nav units, a judge in The Hague has ruled that there are in fact "clear differences" between the two companies' products. TomTom originally filed the suit two weeks ago in hopes of forcing Garmin's devices off of European shelves during the lucrative holiday spendfest; however, the angular design of StreetPilot units was judged to be dissimilar to the curvier Go products even at first glance. Although this latest round of legal shenanigans finds Garmin coming out on top, TomTom is still waiting for the results of another summary proceeding, and of course, there's always the small matter of those three patent infringement suits that have yet to be settled. Since both companies come out with very capable products, we can't say that we have a preference regarding the outcome of this dispute, although we wouldn't mind if Garmin won just enough money from TomTom to keep the latter company from producing anymore of those awful TV commercials.

Filed under: GPS

Tags: design infringement, DesignInfringement, dispute, garmin, gps, navigation, patent infringement, PatentInfringement, tomtom

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

tk. @ Nov 2nd 2006 3:31PM

and don't forget to mention the rediculous radio commercials...

next time ask tomtom, not (insert short 1 syllable name here and repeat)

Neutral

apple_box @ Nov 2nd 2006 3:47PM

TomTom supports Linux and OSX. Garmin does not. I have both. A Garmin Forerunner for running and a TomTom One for the car. Garmin has no love for the Mac.

Neutral

Paul @ Nov 2nd 2006 6:57PM

Garmin is coming out with MAC software first quarter of '07. Garmin units rock, while TOMTOM is just annoying, and EUROPEAN, not that there is anything wrong with that, but why support them, unless it's a world war...

Neutral

Mehool @ Nov 3rd 2006 12:05AM

GO GARMIN! they make devices at AFFORDABLE prices. Tom Tom's are overly hyped and overly priced.

Garmin also has notable aftersale support for devices up to 3 years old (they're still releasing updates and improvements for my Garmin i2 as they see fit -- and no, it's not because the product was released in an unfinished state).

Neutral

C @ Nov 3rd 2006 2:29PM

Neutral

Vincent @ Nov 8th 2006 9:31AM

Seems Garmin is celebrating by pushing a few holiday commercials out there: http://garmin.blogs.com/my_weblog/2006/11/on_the_tube_par.html

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