But none of the icons are identical, they are all different albeit in some cases only slightly. They haven't gone and used the exact icon so I don't see why it should matter. Patent law is a joke and Apple are one of the worst offenders. Just a bunch of greedy bastards trying to make money out of the most trivial thing.
That isn't how trademark protection works. It doesn't need to be identical. From the synopsis: "It’s going to be far harder for Samsung to argue out of some of these — in some cases, like the phone icon, the similarities are impossible to ignore. You might argue that the design of the phone icon is ridiculously trivial and obvious, but consider the flipside: Apple can argue just as persuasively that Samsung had a million options for a phone icon and instead chose a white handset resting at an angle on a green gradient background. Samsung’s lawyers are going to have get creative with this one." http://thisismynext.com/2011/04/19/apple-sues-samsung-analysis/
Most flat panel TVs look nearly identical other than the company logo, and most of them use panels from LG or Samsung, so they basically are the same inside regardless of brand, so this is a silly comparison. As far as the Galaxy Tab is concerned, what were you expecting Samsung to do, make a circular tablet? The Galaxy Tab is a different size, different screen resolution, has four buttons at the bottom, and runs Android. It's really nothing like the ipad at all. The real issue is that Apple are crybabies who can't stand for their competition to be successful. They did this shit before back in the 80s and 90s against Windows. Maybe instead of suing everyone, they should look at reasons why consumers are now flocking to Android.
That's the only way they could have created a unique industrial design? Circular? Seriously? That's like saying that beige boxes were the only way to design a desktop PC case.
Android has actually been in development since 2003, so if anything, it wouldn't surprise me if Apple stole a lot of ideas for the look of iOS from Android, not the other way around.
So if Sony releases an HDTV with an industrial design that looks like this... Then Samsung's only possible HDTV industrial design is this... While an industrial design that differentiates Samsung like this is impossible...
Sony TVs are basically just re-branded Samsungs anyway, since they all use Samsung panels, so who cares. The difference between us is that I care more about function and performance than some flashy industrial design.
I've been sat in a shitty hospital, depressed off my ass for the last 3 days and when I come back this thread has managed to put a big smile on my face. Loving it.
You'd have to hyper-observant of the mundane to be able to differentiate a LCD TV without any badging. I'm going to go ahead and say, they look more or less the same beyond the thickness of the bezel.
I’d agree. Without badging they are 90% the same and I wouldn’t be able to identify the manufacture. Same for PC LCD screen. 95% the same.
If I taped over the brand names in a Best Buy and then told you I'd pay you $10,000 if you could simply identify two TV's that were different from each other, I'm sure you'd quickly obtain "hyper observant" abilities. It's really not that hard. Samsung knows how to create a different design from their competitors. In the case of the Galaxy line, they were intentionally mimicking aspects of Apple's industrial design, packaging design, and icons.
You are full of crap. I would be thoroughly impressed if you could ID brands of TVs without badging. Then I'd call you a loser with too much time on your hands. They have subtle differences to where I can say one tv doesn't look like the other, but I couldn't tell you which brand was which. Essentially, they are all LCD screens with a black bezel covering it. Specifically piano black, ultra shiny bezels.
I wouldn't be asking you to identify the brand name. I'd be asking you to select two industrial designs that are different from each other. You can tell two faces apart, correct? How do you think you manage that when faces contain so many similar features and are all made from the same material?
A lawsuit saying item A looks like B is to protect a brands iconic image. This assumes you can tell the item apart just looking at it. But if you can't tell the brands apart without the logo what's the issue? I can't tell a Sony from a Sharp from a Samsung, the designs aren't differentiated enough. Same with tablets. Do you think Coke should sue every other aluminum canned beverage maker? If you took the logos away, it boils down to the exact same design.
So someone just quoted a snippet of the Apple lawsuit brought against Samsung in the Netherlands. They're even going after sold devices already in customer's hands? This is nuts.
And it'd be 10x easier with the iPad2 vs Galaxy Tab because of the obvious scale difference, but your selective super-observant abilities somehow switch off if it means disagreeing with Apple's official pitch. You're saying you couldn't differentiate TV's by brand if one brand only made 4:3 TV's and the other 16:9? Yet you you're telling me you could immediately tell that the following are definitely made by different manufacturers without the logos:
I already posted a link to a detailed overview of Apple's filing against Samsung. If you really have a strong disagreement about what Apple is doing, why not read it? They hold patents and trademarks for everything listed in the complaint. So, in other words, if you've patented certain aspects of the industrial design, or you hold trademarks for certain elements of the OS, then YES you can file a lawsuit if you believe they're being violated. It's not really just a complaint about the front of the Galaxy Tab looking similar to the iPad. As for your example, does Coke hold a trademark or patent for a generic aluminum can? No. Do they hold a trademark or patent for the original Coke bottle design? Yes.
You need to do what Supersonic needs to do...read the overview of the actual filing. It's a complete oversimplification to say it's simply about comparing the front of the Galaxy Tab to the front of the iPad. http://thisismynext.com/2011/04/19/apple-sues-samsung-analysis/