Judge says Samsung tablet infringes Apple patents, taunts Samsung attorney

Legal

United States District Judge Lucy Koh on Thursday ruled that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet does infringe on multiple Apple patents. Judge Koh failed to order an injunction preventing the sale of the tablet in the U.S. however, stating that Apple must first establish the validity of the patents in question. According to the judge, Apple may have difficulty doing so, but she did take extra care to point out how similar Samsung’s tablet is to the iPad. Read on for more.

The preliminary hearing took an interesting turn, Reuters reports, when judge Koh held both tablets above her head and asked Samsung attorney Kathleen Sullivan if she was able to distinguish one from the other. “Not at this distance,” Sullivan replied, reinforcing Apple’s claim that Samsung’s tablet is a “copycat” device. Another Samsung attorney was able to distinguish Samsung’s tablet from the iPad.

The matter at hand in Koh’s court surrounds patents though, and Samsung says it has successfully raised doubt about the validity of the patents in question. ”We think we’ve clearly raised substantial questions,” Sullivan said in the San Jose court on Thursday. Judge Koh said that she would deny Apple’s request to block the sale of Samsung’s tablet based on utility patents Apple claims are being infringed, but she has not yet made a determination regarding the design patents Apple claims are being infringed by Samsung.

Samsung maintains that Apple’s request for an injunction is baseless, however Apple spokeswoman Kristen Huguet disagrees. ”It’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad,” she told Reuters. “This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”

Earlier this week, a judge ruled that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringed on Apple patents and he banned sales of the tablet in Australia by local Samsung subsidiaries.

Read

124 Comments
  • https://market.android.com/details?id=com.eddiehsu.mathgame Eddie Hsu

    that was one sad lawyer Samsung got… I can probably distinguish them 30 feet away.

  • Anonymous

    Here’s an idea, Judge. Turn them both on so that the OS can be seen, hold them over your head, and ask which one is which?

    Besides, as other people mentioned, tablets are basically a touchscreen with a bezel. Practically any 2 tablets on the market could have been used and it would have been hard to tell the difference. Primary difference between tablets is the back and the sides (port locations etc).

  • VY

    Hey judge (if you’re a judge), people don’t just guess in a court. Wat a stupid question. We should take this judge down if she ban the Galaxy Tab in the US.

1 2 3
blog comments powered by Disqus