Samsung Brings Patent Lawsuit Against Apple to U.S.

One of the patents:
Mobile telephone capable of displaying world time and method for controlling the same

An apparatus and method for calculating and displaying local time for a plurality of cities in the world. The apparatus includes a memory for storing Greenwich mean time (GMT) information for each of the plurality of cities. The apparatus sets a reference time and counts the time that elapses from when the reference time is set. The apparatus calculates a local time of a city selected by a user, which is based on a difference between the GMT of the selected city and the GMT of a present location of the apparatus, the reference time and the counted elapsed time. The reference time may be either a time set by the user or a system time acquired from a signal generated from a remote system.
How can companies get patents for such trivial algorithms???

World War Sue.

Apple has something like 200+ patents (http://www.mad4mobilephones.com/the-21-most-important-iphone-patents/562/) for the iPhone. This could get bloody when Apple responds with additional counter suits. I would pity those called for jury duty to make sense of the technical minutia. The breadth of the patent portfolios will be too detailed to battle in court. They are presented primarily as a way of saying "back off!" Ultimately, cross licensing agreements are forged.

3-5 years in the future, before either side's claims get to trial, FT, IBJ, and WSJ will be reporting on an out-of-court settlement with undisclosed terms.

Its funny how Apple is suing for specific design and UI infringements, but Samsung seems to be countersuing for generic items that could possibly not be invented by them.

They are countering with software implementations to hardware, but they don't own the OS so how is Apple use of internal API's, coding, etc. impeding on Samsung's patents?:confused:

Sounds like Samsung is grabbing at straws hoping to get a short one!:eek:

I like both companies personally. My electronics are split between Apple and Samsung and all of my appliances are Samsung. Sammy is definitely knocking of Apple though. I thought so ever since I saw their portable computer line that looks just like MacBook Pros.:cool:

Why? The law requires an rights owner to defend its IP or risk losing it. These suits are just business, no hard feelings, as seen by Apple's monster-sized component contract w/ Samsung. Any yes, business is about making money.

Every time there's a patent or copyright article and people go off the deep end calling these companies crazy/evil, etc, I wish the article would indicate the fact that they are actually required to do so or risk losing their patent/trademarks. Doesn't even matter if they want to or not.

I agree with most comments, the claims by Samsung seem a stretch. I live in Korea and the Koreans are very loyal to local suppliers and Samsung is not happy with how successful the iPhone is in Korea. Even the local prefer the iPhone over the Samsung phones in Korea. After living here a few years I will never buy Korean products again. They are great at copying, and keeping it all within the country even if it increases cost. I hope Apple succeed in finding other suppliers but I think so many companies have helped Samsung get to big and dominant so it will be hard to find memory and cpu suppliers other than Samsung.

I have used Samsung phones in Korea, they are not great - My Nokia was way better than every Samsung phone I ever had. Samsung phones JUST work, they do not perform. My new iPhone looks better, performs (speed and application wise) better than the Samsung phones I have owned but it drops more calls. Here's an example of how much Koreans refuse to accept Apple, You cannot use a Mac in Korea and do internet shopping or banking. Every website requires a special active X control that only works in IE.

Even in Korea the locals know Samsung copied Apple, when you go to electronics markets the sales people try sell Samsung products saying its "just like Apple iPad/iPhone/iPod and its Korean made so its better"

I really hope Samsung get burnt on this one.