OK, the judge hearing the patent infringement case between Apple and Samsung pulled a stunt. She held both products up, and asked Samsung's lawyers to identify their product, trying to drive home the similiarity between the two tablet PCs. The lawyers had trouble distinguishing them at a distance.
OK... I see her point -- but how much of that similarity is function driven? I mean, if you take the brand labels of half a dozen laptops in a store, would you be able to tell them apart? Maybe the extreme ones like Mac Air... but I bet even a lot of the Mac laptops are pretty much the same as any other, because the design requires a screen and a keyboard, and there just ain't but so many ways to do that. Tablet PCs? Again, pretty much the same thing. I mean, how many clipboards can be distinguished from each other even a few feet away? It's function driven... For the tablet PC, you've got a rough size (clipboard sized), and a screen that doubles as an input mechanism. A charging port, and probably some USB ports.
It sure seems to me like Samsung's lawyers should be able to deal with that move pretty easily...
OK... I see her point -- but how much of that similarity is function driven? I mean, if you take the brand labels of half a dozen laptops in a store, would you be able to tell them apart? Maybe the extreme ones like Mac Air... but I bet even a lot of the Mac laptops are pretty much the same as any other, because the design requires a screen and a keyboard, and there just ain't but so many ways to do that. Tablet PCs? Again, pretty much the same thing. I mean, how many clipboards can be distinguished from each other even a few feet away? It's function driven... For the tablet PC, you've got a rough size (clipboard sized), and a screen that doubles as an input mechanism. A charging port, and probably some USB ports.
It sure seems to me like Samsung's lawyers should be able to deal with that move pretty easily...
