The big Apple-Samsung patent trial begins in the US today. What are the
arguments, what's at stake, who's likely to win, and where will this
leave the mobile industry as a whole?
It feels like mobile giants Apple and Samsung have been suing each other
since the dawn of time, but the really big patent trial between the
companies - the US trial debating whether Samsung copied the design
patents of the iPhone and iPad - begins in California today.
We've summarised each side's arguments below, and have attempted to
explain what Apple and Samsung stand to win or lose in this titanic
legal battle, how likely each outcome is, and the likely effect on the
tablet and smartphone markets. Not to mention the technology industry,
and its heavy reliance on vigorous patent enforcement, as a whole.
What's this patent trial all about, then?
Design patents on mobile technology products, basically. Apple reckons
Samsung copied its designs for the iPhone and iPad, then got rich off
the resulting products. Or richer. It wasn't a pauper to start with.
Sounds like a pretty straightforward case. If they've got the patents, it's open and shut.
Ha! Good one. New to patent law, are you?
Variants on this basic argument, and extensions and offshoots of it,
have been whirling around the world's courts for years, with different
judges reaching often-contradictory verdicts in different territories.
In the UK, for instance, Apple was ordered to take out expensive adverts
admitting that Samsung didn't copy the iPad, although this was later
overturned, whereas German courts have banned the EU sale of Samsung
Galaxy Tabs, on the basis that they infringe Apple design patents.
Riddle me that one, if you can.
Patents tend to be very complicated, often vague and horribly subjective. One thing they're not is 'open and shut'.
Okay, so it's going to be thrillingly complex. Baffle me with some legal arguments. Let's start with Apple's position.
Apple reckons Samsung took rather heavy-handed (or light-fingered)
'inspiration' from the design of the iPhone and iPad, and then made
billions of dollars selling derivative products (and cost Apple hundreds
of millions in lost sales).
Apple's brief for the trial has some great snippets about innovation.
The Wall Street Journal has more of these, but here are some highlights:
"Samsung cannot change the central fact that its products are strikingly
similar to Apple's patented designs. Nor can it change the novelty and
extraordinary success of Apple's designs. Samsung will instead attempt
to confuse the issues with a hodgepodge of defenses based on incorrect
legal standards. Samsung's defenses will fail."
"Samsung's documents show that the similarity of Samsung's products is
no accident or, as Samsung would have it, a 'natural evolution'. Rather,
it results from Samsung's deliberate plan to free-ride on the iPhone's
and iPad's extraordinary success by copying their iconic designs and
intuitive user interface."
Presumably Samsung sees things differently.
Yes. Samsung contends that it got there first with a lot of the basic
technologies used in today's smartphones, that it has relevant patents
of its own, and that Apple has a history of commercialising other
companies' innovations rather than coming up with its own. Here are some
excerpts from the Samsung brief:
"Apple, which sold its first iPhone nearly twenty years after Samsung
started developing mobile phone technology, could not have sold a single
iPhone without the benefit of Samsung's patented technology."
"Apple seeks to exclude Samsung from the market, based on its complaints
that Samsung has used the very same public domain design concepts that
Apple borrowed from other competitors, including Sony, to develop the
iPhone. Apple's own internal documents show this."
"Apple has admitted in internal documents that its strength is not in
developing new technologies first, but in successfully commercialising
them Also contrary to Apple's accusations, Samsung does not need or want
to copy; rather, it strives to best the competition by developing
multiple, unique products. Samsung internal documents from 2006, well
before the iPhone was announced, show rectangular phones with rounded
corners, large displays, flat front faces, and graphic interfaces with
icons with grid layouts."
I'm torn. What evidence has Apple got to support its claims?
Apple has put forward a document (which has been published by
AppleInsider) that illustrates Samsung smartphones before and after the
iPhone launch in 2007. Of course the company has selected the most
visually helpful models, but there's an undeniable
'non-iPhoney'/'iPhoney' contrast between the before and after pictures.
More specifically, Apple has listed the patents it reckons Samsung has
infringed, and a per-unit royalty fee it believes would be appropriate.
Quoting from the excellent site FOSS Patents:
"These are the per-unit royalties that Apple calculated for its different intellectual property rights-in-suit:
US$2.02 for the 'overscroll bounce' (or 'rubber-banding') '318 patent
US$3.10 for the 'scrolling API' '915 patent
US$2.02 for the 'tap to zoom and navigate' '163 patent
US$24 for use of any of Apple's design patents or trade dress rights
Apple bases these demands on studies according to which the features and
techniques covered by those patents drive demand. For example, a
'conjoint survey' conducted by one of Apple's experts 'shows that
Samsung's customers are willing to pay between US$90 and US$100 above
the base price of a US$199 smartphone and a US$499 tablet, respectively,
to obtain the patented features covered by Apple's utility patents'."
US$2 doesn't sound unreasonable. What would the total cost be if Samsung lost (and the judge went with Apple's numbers)?
A cool US$2.525 billion. Sorry but it's impossible to write US$2.525 billion without putting 'cool' in front of it.
Ouch. Does Samsung have any patents of its own to wield? You said both sides had recorded victories.
Samsung's got a few, yes. Its counterclaims have listed some examples of
what we call SEPs, or standard-essential patents, which could relate to
antitrust issues. In the same FOSS article we linked to above, you can
read Apple's slightly amusing pronouncements on that subject: "To The
Extent That Samsung Is Entitled To Any Remedy, its FRAND Damages Cannot
Exceed US$0.0049 Per Unit for Each Infringed Patent."
You'll notice that half a cent per unit per SEP is rather lower than the
figures Apple gives for its own patents, but there are complications;
as FOSS puts it: "Samsung's SEPs cover a part of the functionality of
the baseband chip. And such baseband chips sell in the US$10-per-unit
range. That's a completely different value proposition than the entire
market value of an iPhone or iPad, but that's the way it is."
I see. But if you forget money for a second...
I'll try.
What other effects should we expect if Apple wins big?
Nobody's sure, I'm afraid. But it will establish a pretty strong
precedent for future patent enforcement in the biggest single technology
market: the US. Other makers of non-iOS smartphones, not to mention
anyone who's got a tablet that looks like - but isn't - an iPad, can
expect their lawsuits with Apple to get that much tougher.
To return to the money issue, it might be worth pointing out that
Samsung had revenues of almost US$250bn in 2011, so even Apple's dream
compensation figure wouldn't bankrupt the company overnight. It would
probably hurt, though.
Could the mobile market as a whole benefit from an Apple victory?
Longer-term, it's conceivable - if a little unlikely - that a win in a
context as significant as this could nudge the entire market in a new
direction. Up until now, let's face it, even if they aren't truly
copying the iPad, rival tablet makers are at the very least using it as a
rough template. A thumping Apple win could encourage more innovation.
The iPad created a brand-new market - it would be nice if another
company came along and produced something with the potential to take
sales off the iPad without emulating it. As Tim Cook put it recently,
"It is important for Apple not to be the developer for the world. We
just want other people to invent their own stuff."
Source from:
Everything you need to know about Apple vs Samsung
