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Apple vs Samsung: The great patent battle over rectangles

The patent trial of the century is on in San Jose, California as Apple and Samsung are fighting over who stole what. It might sound like a chicken and egg situation for most people but there are billions of dollars at stake in this court-room battle. Apple has reportedly said that Samsung owes them $2.52 billion in damages.

The jury has been chosen and the trial will last nearly four weeks. Not only the media but tech enthusiasts have sufficient reason to follow the trial closely. Quite recently there’s been a been a spate of documents leaked from the trial which reveal a lot about the products at the two companies.

AllThingsD has an entire gallery of pictures which reveals some very interesting designs for the early iPhone. It needs to be remembered that Apple has alleged that Samsung stole the feel of its iPhone by producing a similar device which has ‘a rectangular shape with rounded corners’.

Interestingly some of the early iPhone designs that are revealed look suspiciously like the current Sony Xperia smartphones. The gallery does reveal that Apple seems to have tinkered with quite a few shapes from squares to rectangles before settling on the current one.

In an interview to Wired, Kevin Packingham, Samsung’s Chief Product Officer, is quoted as saying ‘We’re fighting with Apple over rectangles.’

Sadly, it is true: they are fighting over a rectangle.  But remember Samsung has also said that Apple stole the iPhone design from Sony in the first place.

As far as iPads go the report from AllThingsD shows, that iPads with square corners and iPads with round corners were considered. Earlier filings showed Apple considering a kickstand for the iPad.  Apple claims Samsung slavishly copied the design of the iPad for its Galaxy Tab 10.1. This device has already been banned in the US under a pre-trial injuction.

As far as Samsung is concerned The Verge has reported that the South Korean firm is working on an 11.8-inch tablet with Retina Display and two potential Windows 8 smartphones. This is again based on evidence submitted in the court.  The Windows 8 smartphone is an interesting turn of events, especially since much of Samsung’s success has been due to Google’s OS, Android.

Samsung might appear to be a cheap, Apple copy-cat and the US jury might even rule against them. But there’s no doubt that Samsung has given Apple some serious competition as far as smartphones and tablets are concerned. Should Apple win, its biggest competitor will be out of the market, thus giving the Cupertino-based tech-giant an unfair monopoly in the US.

by Firstpost.com

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