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Apple Wins Patent Ruling As Jury Finds Samsung Infringes

techcrunch.com

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Re: Apple Wins Patent Ruling As Jury Finds Samsung Infringes

#101

Post by btilly »

taligent wrote: post #15
lubos wrote: post #4

I was shocked to learn this case is basically being decided by people who have no idea what they are really deciding on. Here is the jury according to techcrunch 1. An electrical engineer 2. A homemaker 3. A construction worker 4. A young unemployed man who likes video games 5. An insurance agent 6. An ex-Navy avionics technician 7. A store operations manager for a cycling retailer 8. A project manager for wireless c…

What on earth are you talking about ? Juries around the world are compromised of ordinary people.

The USA is unusual in having juries used for a broader spectrum of cases than other countries.

I agree that this particular type of case should not be decided by jury.

Re: Apple Wins Patent Ruling As Jury Finds Samsung Infringes

#103

Post by MattLaroche »

azakai wrote: post #91
sriramk wrote: post #74

The big winner, apart from Apple, is Microsoft. If you're a hardware manufacturer, your choices are 1. You go with Android and have both Apple and Microsoft come after you. 2. You go with Windows Phone. I suspect the Windows Phone team is breaking open some champagne now.

No, you can also make an Android phone. You just need to avoid infringing these specific patents either by removing functionality or implementing it in another way. This lawsuit did not find that "Android" helplessly infringes Apple patents in all cases. Just that the combination of Android, Samsung's software modifications to Android, and Samsung hardware, together infringed several very specific Apple patents.

I haven't been following this closely, but if I understand correctly, the jury found against Samsung on the Nexus S. That is a Google phone built straight from Android and with no specific Samsung code at the UI level.

(Don't think a disclaimer is necessary in this case, but I used to work at Google. Not on Android.)

Re: Apple Wins Patent Ruling As Jury Finds Samsung Infringes

#104

Post by enraged_camel »

r00fus wrote: post #97
enraged_camel wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which in my opinion is a good thing. Everyone should think twice before blatantly imitating the result of other people's investments and hard work. Edit: the downvotes do not surprise me. HN has a very anti-Apple slant.

If you think your downvotes are due to an anti-apple bias, you might want to reword your banal dismissal into meaningful critique of the situation. If HN has a bias, it's towards Apple (which is completely understandable given the state of mobile adoption by startups).

Banal dismissal? Excuse me? How else would you describe what Samsung did, if not as "imitation"? Their own product engineers recommended shamelessly copying Aplle's design to make Samsung phones look identical.

Re: Apple Wins Patent Ruling As Jury Finds Samsung Infringes

#105

Post by cosmando »

maayank wrote: post #13
lubos wrote: post #4

I was shocked to learn this case is basically being decided by people who have no idea what they are really deciding on. Here is the jury according to techcrunch 1. An electrical engineer 2. A homemaker 3. A construction worker 4. A young unemployed man who likes video games 5. An insurance agent 6. An ex-Navy avionics technician 7. A store operations manager for a cycling retailer 8. A project manager for wireless c…

Well, that's what "jury of one's peers" is all about, a broad spectrum of the population.

Well if corporations are people and Apple is the biggest company ever (in terms of market capitalization), who are their peers? It's kind of funny that at least in one arena the big players are accountable to average Joes and Josephines, even if those people disagree with me on certain patents' validity.

Re: Apple Wins Patent Ruling As Jury Finds Samsung Infringes

#106

Post by lovamova »

sriramk wrote: post #74

The big winner, apart from Apple, is Microsoft. If you're a hardware manufacturer, your choices are 1. You go with Android and have both Apple and Microsoft come after you. 2. You go with Windows Phone. I suspect the Windows Phone team is breaking open some champagne now.

Apple stock is down. Microsoft stock is up. Guess who's the winner.

Re: Apple Wins Patent Ruling As Jury Finds Samsung Infringes

#108

Post by crag »

lazyoaf wrote: post #6

This isn't right.... This is a terrible day for fair competition.

Are you saying what Samsung obviously did is fair? Samsung has a LONG history of copying/producing (usually less expensive) products to muscle their way into sectors. Just ask Sony, Nortel, ATT, etc, etc. Look I'm pissed cause Samsung's wasted everyone's time. A better approach would've been to just pay Apple. I mean com'on - those [Samsung] internal memos were pretty damning. I'm also pissed at Apple. Because even if Samsung offered to pay (did they?) I doubt Apple would've come to terms. So they dragged everyone though this huge IP battle just to make a point. Bully for Apple. I'm all for protecting one's inovations but our patent system is getting ridicules.

Re: Apple Wins Patent Ruling As Jury Finds Samsung Infringes

#109

Post by mbell »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #29
jballanc wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet, that's essentially a rounding error on Apple's bank account balance...

Totally, but not for Samsung. That's almost 10% of their net profit last year. This is going to scare the shit out of every Android handset maker out there.

Don't get worked up, they will never pay this. This case will now spend years in appeals courts, damages will be reduced or thrown out, etc.

The only real loss here for Samsung is legal fees and the fear of an injunction on sales during the appeals process, but I don't think a Jury gets to decide that.

Re: Apple Wins Patent Ruling As Jury Finds Samsung Infringes

#110

Post by Steko »

lubos wrote: post #4

I was shocked to learn this case is basically being decided by people who have no idea what they are really deciding on. Here is the jury according to techcrunch 1. An electrical engineer 2. A homemaker 3. A construction worker 4. A young unemployed man who likes video games 5. An insurance agent 6. An ex-Navy avionics technician 7. A store operations manager for a cycling retailer 8. A project manager for wireless c…

There was a great comment on the Verge (lol it's true) the other day about just this by someone who had been in a similar jury:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/23/3260463/apple-samsung-jury...

I actually have some experience with this. I recently “second chaired” a very complex civil trial involving significant accounting issues. The presentation of evidence alone took 5 weeks. The verdict form was almost as complex as the one described here. We all expected the verdict form to come back a self-contradictory mess, but in fact the jury had no problem sorting through it all. The verdicts were perfectly consistent and logical, as were the damage awards. And unlike the Apple/Samsung jury, our jury mostly consisted of homemakers and people from working class backgrounds, so we couldn’t expect them to have comfort with the subject matter. My take on this was that the jurors understood they were deciding a dispute worth tens of millions of dollars and really wanted to reach the right result. So we might see the same thing in this case. On the other hand, my trial involved “real people” with names and faces, not faceless corporations like Apple and Samsung. It is possible that the jurors had a higher level of engagement under the circumstances.

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