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The iPhone 8 goes up against the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus
Before you start throwing down cash for new phones like a Grinch post heart-expansion, watch our video to directly compare more factors than just name brand and price on two of the most popular phones. The iPhone 8 and Galaxy S8 Plus are both less than $1000 (no thanks, iPhone X) but still expensive, beginning at $699 and $825, respectively.
Supreme Court sides with Samsung over Apple patent penalty
The Supreme Court ruled that Samsung's violation of design patents made by Apple can only involve components, not entire products. This could mean a severely reduced penalty that the Korean company will have to pay... and a rare bit of good news for the troubled company.
Apple's $120M patent victory over Samsung reinstated on appeal
Once again, the tables have turned in the Apple vs. Samsung patent saga. Back in February, a US circuit appeals court overturned the $120 million victory awarded to Apple way back in 2014, claiming that Samsung didn't infringe on patents for swipe to unlock and an quick-link feature that turns information like addresses or phone numbers into links. But here we are six months later, with a different federal appeals court reinstating the case's first decision awarding $120 million to Apple.
Apple's $120M patent victory over Samsung overturned on appeal
The never-ending Apple vs. Samsung patent wars just had another chapter written today, long after most of us stopped caring. A US appeals court overturned the $120 million jury-appointed verdict that was awarded to Apple way back in May of 2014. Specifically, the court said that a variety of older Samsung phones (including the Admire, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 2, a host of Galaxy S II variants and the Galaxy S3) didn't infringe upon three Apple patents. The patents in question covered swipe to unlock, auto-correct and a quick link feature that lets links in one app open up another app.
Apple vs. Samsung trial round two: Samsung infringed three patents, owes Apple $119.6 million
Here we go again. 2012's patent trial of the century -- which was all about whether certain Samsung devices were utilizing Apple technology without paying for it -- resulted in a billion dollar win for Apple. Yet, at the time we knew a second case, involving different patents and devices, was brewing on the horizon. The trial for that other case is finally over (almost), and the jury has rendered a verdict -- though there's still a damages issue regarding the Galaxy S II set to be decided on Monday, which could change the final damages tally. In general terms, the verdict's not a complete win for either party, as Apple owes Samsung $158,400 and Samsung will have to cut Apple a check for $119,625,000, a far cry from the $6.2 million and $2.2 billion the parties asked for, respectively. Why? Apple devices infringed one of two asserted Samsung patents, while Samsung phones and tablets infringed three of Apple's five asserted patents. Update May 5,2014: The outstanding damages issues have been resolved by the jury, but the total amount Samsung owes remains unchanged. [Image Credit: Janitors/Flickr]
Judge voids two Samsung claims before Apple patent trial even starts
A US judge has just awarded Apple two summary pre-trial judgments, significantly reducing Samsung's chances of prevailing in the second patent clash between the two tech giants. Judge Lucy Koh invalidated a Samsung multimedia-synchronization patent and determined that the Korean company breached an Apple autocorrect IP -- meaning Koh thought the infringement was so clear that there was no need for a jury to see it. As Foss Patents pointed out, Google could also be unhappy about the autocorrect decision, since it may affect the entire Android ecosystem. With each party bringing five claims to trial, Samsung's chances have effectively dropped by 20 percent since it only has four of its own claims left and Apple has already prevailed on one. That could also impact Samsung's leverage in upcoming negotiations between the company's CEOs, since it hasn't won a single non-FRAND (standards essential) patent dispute through any of the two proceedings. If those discussions don't pan out, then the Apple v. Samsung, part deux trial will begin March 31, 2014.
South Korean court rules against Samsung, won't ban iPhone and iPad
The latest development in Apple and Samsung's patent battle is a new court ruling in the latter's home country, and it's going against Samsung. The Washington Post and Reuters report that in a case covering three Samsung patents, and Apple products including the iPhone 4s, iPhone 5 and iPad 2 Judge Shim Woo-yong ruled against a sales ban and threw out Samsung's request for damages. The Post reports the patents cover things like multitasking, message notifications and how a device can display multiple messages from the same sender. This follows a ruling from late last year in the same court, where Apple was found in violation and ordered to pay Samsung $35,000 in damages, while Samsung was ordered to pay about $24,000 for its own patent overstepping. Samsung is of course considering an appeal of this latest ruling, ensuring that these two deep-pocketed tech giants will keep tying up courts around the world for the foreseeable future.
Scott Forstall may re-emerge as witness in upcoming Apple/Samsung trial on damages
Since his unceremonious firing last October, we haven't heard a peep from or about former Apple executive Scott Forstall. If you recall, rumor has it that Tim Cook effectively told Forstall to take a permanent vacation after the long-time Steve Jobs protégé refused to sign off on a letter apologizing to consumers for glitches in Apple's Maps app. Now comes word that Forstall may re-emerge as a witness during Apple and Samsung's upcoming trial where the only issue to be determined will be how much Samsung owes Apple for infringing upon a number of Apple's design and utility patents. Macworld reports: The two sides Friday filed a joint pretrial statement and lists of potential witnesses they may call. Apple's list includes Phil Schiller, the company's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, and Scott Forstall, the former senior vice president of iOS software. Forstall, of course, testified during the Apple/Samsung trial last summer where he revealed a number of previously unknown tidbits about the iOS design process and the secret history behind the development of the iPhone. Given that the upcoming trial, slated to get underway in November, will focus exclusively on damages, we likely won't get much more juicy information. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see Forstall take the stand given that he's been 100% absent from any sort of limelight since leaving Apple nearly 12 months ago.
Judge Koh denies Samsung a retrial following USPTO patent decisions (updated)
After the USPTO decided to take a second look at a bunch of Apple's patents, including the pinch-to-zoom claims later invalidated by the USPTO, Samsung was understandably pressing for a retrial. However, since then the court has certified most of the other IP in question, including the famous claim 19 or "bounce-back" of patent 7,469,381, a lynchpin in the $1 billion judgement favoring Cupertino. As a result, judge Lucy Koh has decided to ignore the Korean company's pleas and press on with Apple vs. Samsung II, meaning that the trial scheduled for November 12th 2013 will proceed as planned. What does that mean for all of us? Yet more legal wrangling and a prolonging of Samsung's California nightmare. Update: The article originally stated that the rubber-banding claim 21 in 7,469,381 was invalidated, but it was actually the pinch-to-zoom claim in patent 7,844,915. We apologize for any confusion that may have caused.
ITC postpones its decision on Apple's complaint against Samsung
Yesterday, August 1, 2013 was the day that the US International Trade Commission (ITC) was supposed to make a decision on Apple's complaint against Samsung. According to Florian Mueller at FOSS Patents, the ITC gave notice yesterday that it is postponing that decision by eight days until August 9, 2013. Not to be confused with the possible ban on importation of older Apple iPhones and iPads due to infringement by Apple of some Samsung technical patents, this ruling was to determine possible sanctions against Samsung after Administrative Law Judge Thomas Pender found in October 2012 that Samsung had infringed on three Apple technical patents and one design patent. Additional violations by Android's text-selection feature were found after the ITC had remanded some issues to Judge Pender. August 9 is going to be an important day for Apple. Not only will the ITC announce its decision (unless it is postponed again), but that's the day that the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit holds a hearing on Apple's appeal of a court denial of an injunction against a number of Samsung products found to be infringing on Apple patents. The next three days are also critical for Apple, as the presidential review period for the Samsung ban against older iPhones and iPads expires. As noted yesterday, a bipartisan group of US senators has called on US Trade Representative Michael Froman to veto the ban, and today Washington, DC-based antitrust lawyer Jay Jurata called for the White House to "rein in the ITC" on standard-essential patents.
US patent office throws out Apple's pinch-to-zoom claim against Samsung
For those of you eagerly following the seemingly never-ending legal battle between Apple and Samsung (cue crickets), a recent decision by the US Patent and Trademark Office has thrown a wrench into Apple's master plan. According to documents filed by Samsung in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on Sunday, Apple's Patent No. 7,844,915, which covers the two-finger pinch-to-zoom gesture, was found wanting by the USPTO due to it being anticipated by other patents and declared otherwise non-patentable, much like its "overscroll bounce" claim. Apple has up to two months to dispute the decision, though whether or not that action would gain the company any ground, either with federal court or the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, remains to be seen.
Report: Apple considering new suit against Galaxy S 4
Bloomberg is reporting that US Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal has rejected Apple's attempt to include the recently released Samsung Galaxy S 4 in Apple's second California lawsuit against Samsung which is slated to begin in March 2014. Adding another product to the case is a "tax on the court's resources," Grewal said in the ruling. "Each time these parties appear in the courtroom, they consume considerable amounts of the court's time and energy, which takes time way from other parties who also require and are entitled to the court's attention." Apple initially filed a motion seeking to include the Galaxy S 4 this past May and noted that it would be willing to drop one of the accused products already included in the suit if necessary. That, apparently, wasn't sufficiently persuasive for Judge Grewal. An Apple lawyer argued that by excluding the GS4, Apple might have to file a new lawsuit since the devices already covered by the suit will be out of date by the time a verdict is reached. Indeed, this seems to be an ongoing problem for Apple and one for which there doesn't seem to be a practical solution. Tim Cook acknowledged this very predicament when he appeared before Congress this past May. I think the US Court system is currently structured in such a way that tech companies aren't getting the intellectual property protection they need. Our cycles are fast, the court system is very long and the foreign competitors in the US can quickly take IP and use it and ship products with it and they're to the next product as well. I would love to see conversations between countries and see protections between IP globally. For us, our intellectual property is so important, I would love the system to be strengthened in order to protect it. Put simply, the cases Apple brings to trial against Samsung are perpetually a generation behind Samsung's current smartphone lineup. The end result is that Apple is continuously playing catch-up and expending a lot of money litigating cases over products that don't often include Samsung's current flagship devices. The Verge has posted the full court ruling over here.
Apple wins invalidation of Samsung 3G patent in Germany
This round of the continuing fisticuffs between Apple and Samsung goes to Apple. FOSS Patents reported yesterday that Germany's Federal Patent Court has invalidated the German part of a Samsung patent for a "turbo encoding / decoding device and method for processing frame data according to QoS." Samsung had declared this patent essential to the UMTS 3G standard and was hoping to obtain injunctions against Apple for this and several other patents. However, the European Commission deemed Apple to be a willing licensee of the standards-essential patent and promptly decreed an antitrust ruling calling Samsung's efforts "abusive conduct." Samsung then withdrew all injunction requests based on standards-essential patents, but is still suing for damages as well as continuing punitive efforts against Apple for non-standards-essential patents. Just last week, the same court invalidated an Apple slide-to-unlock patent and Apple has begun working on an appeal to that judgement although courts in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK have also ruled against the company. [via Electronista]
Best Buy to provide Samsung mini-stores as Apple competition heats up
The battles between Apple and Samsung have been heating up for a while, and there is a new battleground for the two foes -- the aisles of Best Buy stores. Geek.com reported this morning that some high-traffic Best Buy stores have been given orders to remove two aisles next to the mobile section of their stores to make room for a Samsung "store within a store." At this time, Best Buy stores include an Apple mini-store where customers can browse and buy their favorite Apple products and accessories. The first wave of the Samsung mini-stores will be done in time for the release of the Galaxy S4 next month, but it's expected that the content and ubiquity of the stores will later in the year. By then, other Samsung phones and tablets will be added to the mix of products, and the mini-stores should be in every Best Buy. Like the Apple mini-stores, the Samsung stores will be manned by Best Buy employees specially trained to answer questions about the company's products and to assist customers in making purchasing decisions. Samsung has been opening its own "Samsung Experience Stores" in major cities around the globe to market its tablet, smartphone, PC and HDTV products, but the stores haven't achieved the success of Apple's retail outlets. While the Samsung mini-stores are sure to give their Apple counterparts a lot of competition, the move will definitely benefit Best Buy by furthering its reputation as the place to go for mobile technology.
Apple points out possible $85M court error in Samsung case
Legal maneuverings continue in the landmark court case between Apple and Samsung in the Northern District of California. In the latest development reported by FOSS Patents, Apple is questioning Judge Lucy Koh's decision to vacate $450 million of the original $1.05 billion award. Apple claims an error by Judge Koh would increase the number of devices included in the damage determination from 14 to 16. This would add an additional $85 million onto the judgement, bringing it up from the $600 million awarded by Koh to a new $685 million figure requested by Apple. You can read more about the legal strategy behind Apple's objection in the article on FOSS Patents. [Via Apple Insider]
Daily Update for March 7, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Apple grabs another win against Samsung in London court
Watching the patent lawsuits between Apple and Samsung is like watching a tennis match -- first the ball is on Apple's side and they lob it over the net right past Samsung, then Samsung sneaks a shot past Apple and they win a game. The latest news, this time out of a court in London, is that Apple has won a case over the use of Standard Essential Patents in its products. Samsung had asserted that Apple products infringed on a Standard Essential Patent held by the South Korean manufacturer. The Wednesday ruling means that Samsung, which was hoping for 2.4 percent royalties on sales of any of Apple's 3G-capable devices, won't get a thing. Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents told ZDNet that "On a worldwide basis Apple has now fended off 24 assertions of Standard-Essential Patents by Samsung. Samsung prevailed only on three such patents, two of them in Korea. With every win Apple scores, Samsung's demand for a 2.4 percent royalty on Apple's sales of 3G-capable products looks more ridiculous."
Apple wins one against Samsung in Japanese court
The lastest round of fighting between Apple and Samsung goes to the Cupertino Kid. A Japanese court ruled favorably for Apple in a suit filed by Samsung alleging that Apple had misused 3G wireless patents in several versions of the iPhone. As noted by Apple Insider, Samsung's lawsuit in this case goes back to April of 2011, when the Korean electronics giant sought an injunction against the iPhone for unauthorized use of specific data transmission patents. A ruling today found that Samsung doesn't have the right to assert those 3G patents in court. Samsung had also recently made a request to a California federal court seeking documents from the Apple v. Samsung patent trial, hoping to use those documents in discovery for a similar case in Japan. The move was seen by Apple as an attempt by Samsung to sneak around the usual Japanese court procedures, and the US court agreed with the company.
Apple, Samsung case in Australia warrants two-judge system
Samsung and Apple have been battling in the Australian court system for almost two years. According to a report in Financial Review, the infringement claims have gotten so complicated that the court system has taken a radical move to simplify the hearings. For the first time in Federal Court history, two judges will be present in court to hear each side's arguments. The idea was introduced by Justice Annabelle Bennett, who has been involved in the court cases since the beginning. Joining her in court will be Justice David Yates. The pair will have to examine 19 patent infringement claims by Apple and several from Samsung. [Via AppleInsider]
ITC to rule on Apple's Samsung complaint August 1
Administrative Law Judge Thomas B. Pender of the International Trade Commission (ITC) has scheduled a final ruling on one of Apple's lawsuits against Samsung for August 1, 2013. The ruling in question deals with a decision made by Pender in October of 2012 finding Samsung to be in violation of a design patent and three utility patents owned by Apple. Pender had recommended that the ITC force a ban on certain Samsung products that were infringing on Apple patents, but the ITC returned two of those patents -- dealing with providing translucent images on a display and headphone plug detection circuitry -- back to Pender for him to reconsider. Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents commented that even if Pender rules in Apple's favor, it's not certain whether or not that will result in a ban on infringing Galaxy products in the US. Samsung has designed workarounds to bypass several of the violations, although Pender will have the final word on whether or not those workarounds are sufficient to keep a ban at bay. [via AppleInsider]
