Yawn. On we go with yet more patent battles. This time, a German court has ruled that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 infringes on Apple’s patents and should now be banned not just in Germany but across the EU. The same doesn’t apply to the Samsung Galaxy 10.1N which has been passed for sale.
How long before Apple attempt to patent the idea of pushing a button to turn a device on, or looking at a screen to read information?
Following Judge Colin Birss’ stating that the Galaxy Tab wasn’t as ‘cool’ as the iPad, it seems that Apple will be forced to advertise in national newspapers and magazines, as well as putting a notice on the Apple UK website, saying that Samsung did not copy the iPad designs when creating the Galaxy Tab.
Apple are clearly going to be unhappy about giving a competitor space on their website, so it remains to be seen if they will actually do this! It would be nice to see this leading to the end of the constant patent battles but I don’t see it happening any time soon unfortunately.
Users who own an unlocked Samsung Galaxy Nexus (HSPA+ variant) should have started receiving the latest version of Android, v4.1 (codenamed Jelly Bean) in an over-the-air update. Google announced the release in a post on Google+, and also promised that Jelly Bean will be available soon for other Galaxy Nexus models, the Nexus S and the Xoom. I’ve got a Xoom and look forward to seeing the improvements over Ice Cream Sandwich.
Yet another battle in the tedious patent wars between Android and Apple has been fought, and the initial victory goes to Apple, who have succeeded in getting sales of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus banned in the US. The reason for the ban is because the phone offers a unified search interface – the very idea of Apple owning a patent on something like this is ridiculous.
Google and Samsung are working on a patch so that sales of the phone can resume. In the meantime, the phone is not currently available from the Google Play store, instead showing a message saying ‘coming soon’.