Courts swallow Apple's tablets
How free is a free market? Apple has been visiting European courts seeking injunctions against the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Tab, alleging that the Samsung tablet violates its "Registered Community Design rights" in the iPad.
On the 9th August, Apple asked a court in Dusseldorf, Germany, to issue an injunction against the sale of the Galaxy Tab in Germany and every other EU country, arguing that it looked too similar to the Apple iPad and violated its registered design. Registered Community Designs are an EU construct which grants a monopoly right for the appearance of a product resulting from the features of the lines, contours, colours, shape, texture and materials of the product.
The court agreed that Apple had a case and granted an EU-wide preliminary injunction against the sale of the Tab pending a full hearing scheduled for September. Samsung said it was disappointed with the court's decision, that the injunction had come out of the blue, and it had not been given any notice of the hearing or any opportunity to speak at the hearing. Samsung appealed and a few days later another court restricted the injunction and said that it can apply only to Samsung's distributor in Germany, not the whole of the EU. Meanwhile Apple has taken similar action in the Netherlands, where Samsung's main European distributor is based, but this court decided not to impose any immediate ban, and instead hold a full hearing on September 14th at which Samsung will be able to present its defence.
An Apple spokesman said "It's no coincidence that Samsung's latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging. This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple's intellectual property when companies steal our ideas."
Does Apple have a case? The documents it has filed to support its requests claim that "both devices have rounded corners and feature a flat surface centred within, and surrounded by, a metallic frame. When switched on, both devices present an array of icons as shown in the image". Rounded corners? Metallic frames? Icons on the screen? That just as easily describes my old satnav. Surely that is too generic a concept to be Apple's intellectual property. Critics have also noticed other questionable elements in Apple's submissions, such as the side by side photo of the two devices which appears to have had the proportions changed so that the Tab looks to be the same size as the iPad. In fact the Tab is half an inch slimmer and has a widescreen 1280x800 pixel format compared to the iPad's screen of 1024x768.
Even without these questions, should the EU be granting such generalised monopolies on basic design ideas? The rules are supposed to protect innovative ideas but, as Samsung itself has pointed out, its own Digital Photo Frame (the SPF107H) is a flat rectangle with rounded corners and large screen which pre-dates the iPad. And the idea of flat portable computer "pad" with rounded corners certainly wasn't invented by Apple. Take a look at these YouTube clips and then tell me that pads were Apple's idea.
An episode of Star Trek from more than 20 years ago
Another Star Trek clip with a portable pad
A scene from the film 2001 (made in 1969)
30th August 2011
This article comes from the SKILLZONE email newsletter, published monthly since January 2008, and covering topics related to technology and the internet. All articles and artwork in the SKILLZONE newsletter are orignal content.