In April 2011, Apple filed a suit in a US court against Samsung, claiming the South Korean manufacturer “slavishly copied” Apple’s design for its Galaxy phones. This suit was just the beginning of many others which were, and are still being replicated and counter-claimed across the world for multiple devices.

1. © Tech Corp Legal LLP, 2010-2012

2. Myth:
Because of software patents, any company could be sued for almost anything !!
Reality:
Software Patents play an important role in encouraging innovation !!
© Tech Corp Legal LLP, 2010-2012

3. The beginning:
According to an Australian
affidavit from Apple's global
legal counsel Richard Lutton,
chief executive Steve Jobs
warned Samsung about potential
litigation in Jun 2010, shortly
after the release of the first
Galaxy phones.
© Tech Corp Legal LLP, 2010-2012

4. © Tech Corp Legal LLP, 2010-2012
The First Lawsuit:
In April 2011, Apple filed a suit in a US court against Samsung,
claiming the South Korean manufacturer "slavishly copied" Apple's
design for its Galaxy phones. This suit was just the beginning of
many others which were, and are still being replicated and counter-
claimed across the world for multiple devices.
Interestingly, Apple settled its two year old patent battle with Nokia
in June 2011, and Apple agreed to pay on-going royalties to Nokia
and license its patents.

5. Infringement of Trade Dress:
Apple claimed that Samsung’s Galaxy
phones embodies a combination of
several elements of the Apple Product
Configuration Trade Dress namely, a
product configuration with:
© Tech Corp Legal LLP, 2010-2012
• a rectangular product shape with all four corners uniformly rounded;
• the front surface of the product dominated by a screen surface with
black borders;
• substantial black borders above and below the screen having roughly
equal width and narrower black borders on either side of the screen
having roughly equal width;
• a metallic surround framing the perimeter of the top surface;
• a display of a grid of colorful square icons with uniformly rounded
corners; and
• a bottom row of icons set off from the other icons and that do not
change as the other pages of the user interface are viewed.

6. Infringement of Trade Dress:
Apple claimed that Samsung also imitated Apple’s Product Packaging Trade
Dress:
© Tech Corp Legal LLP, 2010-2012

7. Infringement of Apple’s Trade Marks:
Apple claimed that in addition to copying Apple’s Product Trade Dress,
Samsung has also copied numerous application icons in which Apple had
valid trademark rights, as shown below:
© Tech Corp Legal LLP, 2010-2012

8. Infringement of
Patents:
Apple claimed that
Samsung’s
infringement of the
Apple utility patents
provided Samsung
with unique
functionality for its
products that was
the result of Apple’s
innovation, and not
Samsung’s.
© Tech Corp Legal LLP, 2010-2012
Apple’s
Patents
Samsung
Galaxy
Mobile

9. INFRINGEMENT OF PATENTS: Apple’s Patent 7,669,134 titled “Method
and Apparatus For Displaying Information During An Instant Messaging
Session” mainly covers the iChat and iOS cartoon-bubble chat interface
as “arranging incoming messages in a communications session in a
timeline that's horizontally spaced”. Apple claims Samsung has infringed
this patent and from the looks of it, that's pretty much similar to
Samsung's TouchWiz chat interface.
© Tech Corp Legal LLP, 2010-2012
Apple’s
Patent
Samsung
Chat

10. © Tech Corp Legal LLP, 2010-2012
Further Analysis of Apple vs Samsung and other lawsuits related to
Smartphones & Mobile Apps across different parts of the world
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