http://thisismynext.com/2011/04/19/apple-sues-samsung-analysis/
The world of technology business is extremely aggressive. Different organizations such as Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, etc, have been fighting with one another over copyrights claims like design and copying of technology. In this article, it reveals the fight be
tween Apple (the plaintiff) and Samsung. The part of the article that I want to go over is the Design. There are two parts of the design that are mentioned given below:
Hardware and software trade dress claims
- a rectangular product shape with all four corners uniformly rounded;
- the front surface of the product dominated by a screen surface with black borders;
- as to the iPhone and iPod touch products, substantial black borders above and below the screen having roughly equal width and narrower black borders on either side of the screen having roughly equal width;
- as to the iPad product, substantial black borders on all sides being roughly equal in width;
- a metallic surround framing the perimeter of the top surface;
- a display of a grid of colorful square icons with uniformly rounded corners; and
- a bottom row of square icons (the “Springboard”) set off from the other icons and that do not change as the other pages of the user interface are viewed.
Packaging trade dress claims
- a rectangular box with minimal metallic silver lettering and a large front-viewpicture of the product prominently on the top surface of the box;
- a two-piece box wherein the bottom piece is completely nested in the top piece; and
- use of a tray that cradles products to make them immediately visible upon opening the box.
This is pretty astounding to read because we see different brands have its own style of make. When one sees a Mac or an iPhone for example, we immediately recognize its the Apple brand. Even the box the iPhone and iPods come in have its unique design. To think that Samsung is copying Apple with one of the most blatant aspects as the visible design of its products.
It is evident here that the two products look fairly similar. Mentioned above, they have the similar dress with the black bordered fronts with the home button at the bottom, the four app dock placement and the simple shape.
A question I want to bring up is whether or not the shape is something Apple should be bringing up. They are arguing that Samsung copied the rectangular shape with the well rounded edges. How many different shapes can phones have while keeping it conveniently shaped. The number of possibilities is limited for any company.
The products of both Samsung and Apple are evidently similar. I suggest going to the article for a more in depth look at the similarities. The applications icons are too blatantly similar that its hard to think that Samsung would get away with the same design.