Saturday, April 6, 2019
Clash between Apple and Samsung
How the clash between Apple and Samsung started?
If you’ve been following Apple for a while or know the company’s history, you’ll probably remember them having quite a few rivals over the pastthirty-fivee years. In the 80’s it was IBM, in the 90’s it was Microsoft, and in the 2000’s, it eventually became Google. But the rivalry between Apple and Samsung is more recent, and more unique. Since Samsung not only competes with Apple in the notebook, tablet, and smartphone markets, but also supplies Apple with key components for their devices. Like the iPhone’s OLED display and flash memory chip. So let’s explore how the two companies’ relationship soured, and how they feel about each other today. This is Sagar with Tech Info and if you want to help decide which post topics I cover, make sure you’re subscribed and comment.
Samsung v. Apple is a long-running dispute between two main mobile phone manufacturers. These two companies have been fighting with each other over a various span that they hold all over the world, with Apple winning some and with Samsung winning some, but the Supreme Court is going to focus on just one issue: whether Samsung’s infringement of the way Apple’s phone look should be punished by forcing Samsung to turn over every single penny that they’ve made on the sale of those devices or whether the damage should be much lower and be reduced to limit them only to the value of a particular design that Apple came up with. There are generally two types of patents.
Samsung v. Apple is a long-running dispute between two main mobile phone manufacturers. These two companies have been fighting with each other over a various span that they hold all over the world, with Apple winning some and with Samsung winning some, but the Supreme Court is going to focus on just one issue: whether Samsung’s infringement of the way Apple’s phone look should be punished by forcing Samsung to turn over every single penny that they’ve made on the sale of those devices or whether the damage should be much lower and be reduced to limit them only to the value of a particular design that Apple came up with. There are generally two types of patents.
One is called utility patent and one is called design patent. A utility patent is one that is meant to cover the way things work. The design patent covers the way things look, irrespective of how they work. It’s purely ornamental. Design patents are meant to cover these ornamental features that do not affect the utility of a particular device. Currently, it’s only those patents, it’s not the utility apatents that are at issue. The Court is concerned by whether or not Apple has really reduced the price to fairly small features. These are not fundamental, groundbreaking things. Whether or not by having patents on those things, they can essentially bankrupt an entire line of Samsung products. Apple prevailed at a jury trial and a jury concluded that Samsung’s Galaxy devices infringed some of Apple’s design patents and awarded them a judgment in the amount of, roughly, one billion dollars. Eventually, the case was appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Unfortunately for Samsung, the statute language is fairly clear. It does say entirety of the profits. Section 289 of Title 35 of United States Code says that when a design patent is infringed, the infringer is liable for the entirety of his profits. The section is actually fairly clear and we can certainly debate whether that’s a right decision or a wrong decision from microeconomics, fairness, incentives, and so on. Nonetheless, that’s what Congress said, therefore, Samsung was liable to figure out how much money they made on the sale of their Galaxy devices and turn it all over to Apple. It’s going to take some effort by Samsung to convince the Court that the statute is either not as clear as people think or at least doesn’t make sense in a modern economy. Samsung’s argument is that people were not necessarily buying Samsung because it has rounded edges and a button at a particular location, and even if they’ve infringed those patents, according to Samsung, they should pay something, but they should pay only for the value of those particular features, and of course the value of the features is not very high. If the Supreme Court agrees with Apple, then Samsung will pay its one billion dollar judgment plus whatever interest has accrued since then. If the Supreme Court agrees with Samsung, then the case will be remanded back to the trial court for additional trial, not on the issue of infringement because that’s already been settled, but on the issue of how much that infringement is actually worth under the rule the Supreme Court will announce.
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