Amaya Toman The war of Apple vs. Samsung has become a kind of permanent part of our lives, which we rarely notice anymore. But do you remember how and when this age-old dispute actually started?
Rivals and collaborators
The first shots in the endless battle of Apple vs. Samsung fell already in 2010. At that time, a team of Apple executives confidently visited Samsung's headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, where they decided to tell the representatives of the rival smartphone manufacturer what their accusations were. This started a war that cost a lot of work, time, effort and money. A war between two rivals who are also collaborators.
On August 4, 2010, a group of determined men from Apple entered the forty-four-story headquarters of the Samsung company in Seoul, South Korea, and started a dispute that will probably continue to burn in various forms for as long as the two named companies exist. At the beginning of everything was the Samsung Galaxy S smartphone, which experts from the apple company concluded was a product of pure piracy, and therefore decided to take action. One could argue that there was nothing more to think about on a smartphone then than a main button, a touch screen and rounded edges, but Apple considered this design - but not only the design - to be an infringement of Samsung's intellectual property.
Steve Jobs raged - and raging was one of the things he really excelled at. Jobs, along with then-COO Tim Cook, voiced their concerns face-to-face with Samsung president Jay Y. Lee, but received no satisfactory answers.
Are we infringing patents? You are infringing patents!
After weeks of treading carefully, diplomatic dances and polite phrases, Jobs decided it was time to stop dealing with Samsung in gloves. The first of the key meetings took place in a conference room in the high-rise building where Samsung was based. Here, Jobs and Cook met with a handful of Samsung engineers and lawyers, led by company vice president Seungho Ahn. After the opening pleasantries, Chip Lutton, an Apple associate, took the floor and launched into a presentation titled "Samsung's Use of Apple Patents in Smartphones," highlighting points such as the use of the pinch to zoom gesture and other elements beyond the user interface. Since the presentation did not meet with the appropriate response from Samsung, Lutton pronounced the verdict: "Galaxy is a copy of the iPhone".
Samsung representatives were outraged by the accusation and countered by arguing that their company had its own patents. And that it's actually quite possible that Apple willfully violated some of them. A dispute erupted over who stole what from whom, with both sides adamant about their truth. A frantic exchange of mutual accusations, arguments, mutual lawsuits for absurd amounts of money and the description of millions of pages of paper with legal documents, judgments and decisions began.
As part of the episode "Samsung Strikes Back" in the never-ending saga "Apple vs. Samsung', the South Korean giant decided in return to reveal the patents infringed by Apple. A battle has erupted in which neither of the contending parties is definitely going to give up.
Usual suspect, usual procedure?
This strategy wasn't anything out of the ordinary for Samsung. Die-hard opponents of the South Korean electronics maker even claim that Samsung is a master at constantly suing its competitors in order to gain more market share for its "cheaper clones". It is difficult to say how much truth there is in this scathing statement. Compared to the past, you wouldn't find too many common features between current smartphones from Samsung and Apple, or a number of technologies are commonplace in modern smartphones and don't necessarily have to be targeted copies - and nowadays, when the market is completely saturated with electronics, it's really getting harder to come up with something groundbreaking and 100% original.
Not just legend, but also historical records from various court cases claim that ignoring competitors' patents is not unusual for Samsung, and the related disputes mostly involve the same tactics that the South Korean giant used against Apple: suing "in retaliation", delays, appeals , and in case of impending defeat, a final settlement. "I've yet to come across a patent that they wouldn't think about using, regardless of who it belongs to," said Sam Baxter, a patent attorney who once handled one of the cases involving Samsung.
Samsung, of course, defends itself against such accusations, saying that its opponents tend to misrepresent its patent access reality. But the truth is that counterclaims when allegations are made against the company are more than common at Samsung. The total number of products over which Apple and Samsung sued in the District Court in San Jose, California eventually exceeded 22. The court-ordered settlement failed, and even in the months that followed, the two rivals did not reach a satisfactory solution.
Endless story
Since 2010, when the battle of Apple vs. Samsung launched, there have already been countless accusations of various kinds, from both sides. Although the two companies seem to be able to come to an agreement on the supply side, the history of mutual accusations speaks differently. What do you think of their never-ending bitter fight? Can you imagine a truce between the two rivals one day?
Source: VanityFair, Cultofmac
Probably difficult. Until there is a boycott of Samsung by users, it will not end.