Samsung vs Apple

Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S7 smartphone and now two of the biggest and most influential tech companies in the world are arguing in court about a patent infringement all over again. Samsung and Apple have been going back and forth in the patent courts for threes years now about their iPhone and Galaxy phones spanning from courts in Germany, Japan, South Korea, and many more. Apple’s accusations against Samsung started something called the ‘smartphone patent wars’, which is defined as the “extensive litigation in fierce competition in the global market for consumer mobile communications.” By July 2012 they two companies were litigating over 50 lawsuits around the world with damages in the billions of dollars. However, unlike the previous VirnetX vs Apple case, we are now playing in the big leagues. Neither company is what one would consider a “patent troll” and these accusations in many ways have a much more legitimate standing than VirnetX’s case. Both companies produce and sell products that are used by a vast majority of the people in our world and the technologies being used are beginning to blur.

Over the years, the main aspect that has been discussed was the pinch-to-zoom feature on their touch screens. This feature allows users to zoom in and out on photos and articles and lets you zoom in when taking photos or videos. Its used incredibly frequently by all users so that’s why the infringement accusations are so serious and debated. In the end, the court ruled that Samsung has to pay $548 million in damages to Apple due to this pinch zoom feature infringement. However, this ‘smartphone patent war’ between the two spearheading companies is far from being over because Samsung can file for an appeal and take this case to the Supreme Court. If this case goes all the way up to the big guys then this case will go down as a landmark patent infringement case and may change the way our technological world function forever.