War Of Words Between Apple And Samsung Gets Closer To Gutter
June 17, 2011
The fight between Apple and Samsung is getting nastier and this time the bullets are coming from Cupertino, California. Apple now says Samsung products “blatantly imitate” the iPhone and iPad’s appearance. This comes ahead of a Friday court hearing between the two, according to Cult of Mac.
You may recall the two are at battle over the designs of existing (and perhaps future) iDevices. Apple claims Samsung has copied both the iPhone and iPad to create its own line of smartphones and tablets. Meanwhile, Samsung is now demanding it see the designs for the iPad 3 and iPhone 5.
In today’s latest news, Apple has amended a complaint and now alleges copyright infringement.
According to Cult of Mac:
Samsung “has been even bolder” than other firms that borrow the iPhone’s looks” with “products that blatantly imitate the appearance of Apple’s products to capitalize on Apple’s success,” according to the complaint. Specifically, Samsung in 2007 copied “the clean flat surface of the Apple iPhone Trade Dress and Apple iPhone/iPhone 3G/iPhone 4 Trade Dress,” the company claims. That clean look was a break from the usual appearance of keyboards and other components which made cell phones bulky. “None had the clean lines of the iPhone, which immediately caused it to stand apart from the competition,” according to Apple’s court filing.Apple and Samsung have had a long and successful relationship up until this point. Whether this lawsuit will change this relationship is anyone's guess. Ultimately, the courts will need to determine if Samsung copied Apple’s designs. If they did, a remedy will be necessary. In the meantime, we should probably expect to hear a lot more of the public back and forth between the two companies.