By Stephen Schenck | May 1, 2011 2:24 AM
A couple weeks back, Apple fired off accusations that Samsung’s Android smartphones were just a little too similar to iPhones, filing suit against Samsung for copying the iPhone “user interface and innovative style”. Samsung isn’t about to sit back take that treatment from Apple without a fight, and now it’s taken off the kid gloves and returned Apple’s volley with some legal action of its own, charging Apple with violating ten of the company’s patents.
When we looked at Apple’s initial action against Sasmsung, we touched on just how silly some of these IP holdings at the heart of these disputes really are, claiming rights over functions that would seem obvious and trivial to the layman. Samsung isn’t raising the level of discourse any with its patent disputes; one that it accuses Apple of violating has to do with automatically updating the smartphone’s clock when you cross time zone borders. Honestly, would anyone designing a location-aware mobile device not figure out on their own that they need that function?
In the end, once both companies make a show of force, flaunting their IP profiles, they’ll likely come to some sort of agreement letting each use the other’s holdings, probably with some cash or corporate resources trading hands. Apple’s going to keep making iPhones, and Samsung will keep making Androids.
