UK Court Rules Samsung Tablets 'Uncool', Apple's Infringement Suit No Basis
A British court was far from convinced that Samsung's Galaxy product lines derived too much of their looks from the iPad and iPhone, as claimed by tech titan Apple, rejecting the latter's arguments that the South Korean company was deliberately capitalising on Apple's incredible success with its products.
According to High Court Judge Colin Birss, consumers would be hardly confused with the way that Samsung had designed its flagship products, which presently were regarded as the closest rivals of the million selling smartphones and tablets made by Apple.
In fact, Judge Birss was under the impression that Samsung's Galaxy tablets were "not as cool," as the iPad, which to date remains the dominant tablet with global market share of about 63 percent as of the first quarter of 2012 as per the reports of industry tracker IDC.
"(Samsung's tablet) do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design," the court ruling said on Monday in London.
The court also pointed out that apart from Samsung tablets' "unusual details on the back," the device were relatively thinner compared to the iPad, differences that consumers would not miss in making their decision on whether to buy a Samsung or an Apple.
Agence France Presse (AFP) reported today that the London court is convinced that no infringement violations were committed by Samsung in the design of the Galaxy product lines.
Judge Birss gave the American tech titan 21 days to convince him otherwise.
In a statement, Apple insisted that the Galaxy devices were mere copycats and "it's no coincidence that Samsung's latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad."
"This kind of blatant copying is wrong and, as we've said many times before, we need to protect Apple's intellectual property," Bloomberg reported Apple as saying on Monday night.
But Samsung stressed that the UK court decision served as vindication for the company, which came following weeks of frustrations for the Asian firms in American courts, where it was confronted with strings of pre-trial injunctions for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy Nexus smartphone.
Apple's relentless legal suits, the company said, only restrict the inflow of new products that in the end was detrimental to the market.
"Should Apple continue to make excessive legal claims in other countries based on such generic designs, innovation in the industry could be harmed and consumer choice unduly limited," Samsung was quoted by AFP as saying on Tuesday.
The new ruling gave Samsung much needed breather in the European theatre after a Washington court said on Friday last week that Galaxy Nexus can resume selling on the American market.
But that favourable nod was muted by the same court's order of barring Samsung's tablet in U.S. stores pending the resolution of the year-old patent war between the company and Apple.
Samsung has been adamant in maintaining the market presence of its Galaxy products, which analysts said boosted the overall revenues of the firm following the soft sales slides on its other consumer electronic products.
The company has been enjoying brisk sales on smartphones and feature phones that it dethroned Apple and Nokia in March as kings of their respective market segments.
Samsung is also poised to report record sales figures by the end of the month, with much of the second quarter gains attributed to its spiking smartphone sales.