Breaking news from my
swamp home country The Netherlands: the
Dutch court has just banned the sales of all Galaxy S, SII and Ace smartphones in the entire European Union. The judge has ruled that Android 2.x violates Apple's 868 patent which covers scrolling through photos on a touchscreen. Only this one patent is violated - the complaints about two other patents as well as the design patents has been thrown out. In other words, the judge did not agree with Apple that Samsung is copying Apple's design. The injunction only covers the Galaxy smartphones, since they run Android 2.x; Android 3.0 does not violate the patent in question, and hence, sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 can continue. In fact, only the Gallery application violates the patent in question, and Samsung
has already stated it is going to replace this application on all new Galaxy smartphones from now on - sales won't even be interrupted. In other words - two patents thrown out, design stuff rejected, and only one patent complaint upheld which will cause no harm to Samsung. Apple just scored a meaningless victory. The Dutch court order is
here. The pictures speak thousands of words.
Member since:
2010-10-05
I actually hate that bounce back effect, it seems annoying and childish, and I'd like to see it removed or made optional. But still, giving a for-profit company a *monopoly* on the bounce back effect? That is ridiculous.
Also, the patent claim in the story (you need to drag a photo more than a certain distance to switch to the next one) is not any kind of invention -- the same idea is used a lot in mouse-based interfaces, e.g. for double-click and drag-and-drop.