Welcome to #IPThursday, where we go through cool IP stories with your Favourite Lawyer. Given that Apple dropped the new IOS this week, I thought we’d do the famous war of Apple vs Samsung, who’s corner are you in? 
Our story begins in 2004, the CEO and founder of Apple Inc. Steve Jobs, or as we’d call him in Southern Africa “Stevovo”, wanted to get into the cellphone business. At the time, Apple’s primary focus was on computers, specifically the MacBook.
Although Apple had released the i-pad in earlier years, which had been a success, Jobs wanted to create a phone that would be just as easy to use, but would not go easy on your wallet.
So he gathered some tech geeks, you know, the IT guys who fantasize about hacking your PC? Well he got 100s of them and took them to a secret location for what I call Tech Olympics, Jobs called it “Project Purple”. Their mission was simple, make a cool cellphone.
They collaborated with a company called Cingular Wireless and after 30 long months, they created the “iPhone”. Jobs unveiled the iPhone to the public on 9 January 2007 at Macworld. He described it as a 3 in 1 device, an iPod, web browser and a mobile phone.
It was a really cool phone. It had a slick 2 toned design and an easy to use interface. It was mostly touch screen at a time when every teenage girl owned the sliding Samsung E250. I’m sure we all remember the lip gloss and E250 combo.😂
There was one huge criticism of the “iPhone” though, it was expensive AF. 40% of the targeted people in the US felt that the price was just too high. At the time, market leader Nokia was making affordable phones for fun.
In fact, every other month, Nokia was releasing a different shaped phone unprovoked, at a fraction of the price. I honestly don’t know what they were trying here. A lot of people didn’t want to switch brands. Besides, many at Nokia felt “who needed a smartphone anyway?”
Apple insisted that a touchscreen with a user friendly interface was the future and released the iPhone 4 and 4s in 2011. These were also well received and despite the crazy prices, people all over the world bought them.
By 2011, Apple had surpassed Nokia as the leading mobile phone vendor in revenue. Sadly, Steve Jobs passed away that year and Tim Cook took over as CEO of Apple. The following year, they released the iPhone 5 and 5s, these were still expensive but they were even more successful.
Along the way, Nokia very quickly became irrelevant. It turns out their monopoly was not as strong as the 3310. They would go on to lose 90% of their market share in a 6 year period. BlackBerry came and went just as quickly.
Meanwhile, Apple had filed over 200 Patent applications for different aspects of the iPhones and its IOS, cementing their status as the leading phone brand.
Despite this, they repeatedly found themselves in court in what was to be one of the biggest Patent wars ever, which brings us to their arch nemesis, Samsung.
Samsung is a South Korean company that makes a wide range of electronics. It is the largest manufacturer of electronic devices in the world.
Samsung had been making cellphones for years when Apple released the iPhone. However, in 2009, they decided to release the “Galaxy” smartphones. The Samsung smartphones used Google’s Android system and were aimed at rivaling Apple in the smartphone wars.
It didn’t take long for Samsung to also surpass Nokia in terms of revenue. Unlike Apple, Samsung decided to make cheaper android phones in addition to its flagship phone. In 2011, they released the Galaxy S3, their biggest cellphone launch ever at the time.
This didn’t sit well with Apple. Steve Jobs had previously said that they were going to wage a “Thermonuclear war” with Samsung. Not only did they hate the competition, but they felt that the Galaxy smartphones were similar to the iPhone.
Apple claimed that Samsung had copied their bounce back effect, home button, the on-screen icons, the tap to zoom feature and the design of the iPhone on their Galaxy devices. Basically, they said the galaxy devices look like the iPhone/iPad.
Let me just explain what patents and a registered design are. There’s different types but in short, a design protects how your product looks. This includes the shape, layout, colours and patterns.
A Patent protects your NEW invention, if it does something never seen before. How your product works. You can register both and Apple had done just that for the iPhone features.
Think of it this way, VW created an epic car, the VW Polo, best car in the world. They have registered designs for the way it looks. The bumper, the grill, lights etc. If someone else copies the distinct look, VW can sue them.
So Apple dragged Samsung to court in the US and sued them for $2 billion for patent and design infringement, amongst other things. They had a lot of evidence of instances when a Samsung looked similar to their iPhone. Both when the screen was switched on and when screen was off.
Samsung were not going to take this lying down and they counter-sued. They said Apple had actually copied their technology to make the iPhone.
Apple were shocked by the audacity and presented more evidence. They had proof that a lot of the galaxy devices were returned by customers because people confused them with iPhones. Sidenote: you can make evidence say anything sometimes.
So, in the “Smartphone War” the US judge had to decide, would you be confused by a samsung galaxy smartphone, specifically the S1 and an iPhone 3G.
The jury held that the phones were similar and Samsung had copied the iPhone designs and patents. Samsung had copied Apple. The jury also said that the Galaxy Tablet was also similar to the iPad.
Samsung were ordered to pay just over 1 billion USD to Apple for patent and design infringement. They managed to bring this down quite a lot. Moreover, they did NOT pay it coins as many people think.😂
Samsung couldn’t catch a break, in 2014, Apple filed a new lawsuit against them. They said a bunch of Samsung’s new phones, including the Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S II, infringed on their patents and designs.
Again, Samsung counter-sued and lost.....again. This time they were ordered to pay $119.6 million. To date, Apple has been awarded $539 million from the lawsuits in the US.
The US decisions have been criticized as being “Apple Friendly”. If it was football you’d say Apple definitely had home ground advantage here. It didn’t help that in the US, they use a jury system where any random Thabo can decide court cases.
For context, Apple haven’t had luck in other countries. Their lawsuits against Samsung haven’t had great success outside of the US. They have largely lost the cases in South Korea, Japan, Britain, Dutch and German courts. Makes you wonder.
My opinion: I do think that US courts were “Apple Friendly”. There may be similarities between the phones, however, this was probably more about maintaining a monopoly. But I’d love to hear your thoughts!
What happened to Nokia? Well they were acquired by Microsoft a few years ago. They thought giving us different shape of phones that did the same thing was the key, it wasn’t.
Big Lessons: Patent and Design registration give you strong rights. When you create something, register that right away. And don’t be like Nokia, adapt or you will become irrelevant! ❤️💛💚
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