In the news today, well, Friday actually, Samsung was doing some more kvetching about Apple’s allegedly “doctored” photographs. In case you haven’t been following the story you can read up on the action here first, then here.
But we’ll begin with a brief review.
Initially a court in Düsseldorf, Germany placed an injunction against Samsung, prohibiting the sale of the Galaxy Tab in the entire EU. A few days later that injunction was overturned because the court only had authority for Germany— thereby restoring sale of the product to the EU with the only exception being Germany. At the same time, Samsung brought charges against Apple accusing them of doctoring photos of the Galaxy Tab to more closely resemble the iPad.
Back to now, Apple has allegedly submitted another set of doctored images to a court in the Netherlands which makes Samsung’s Galaxy S appear to share dimensions similar to Apple’s iPhone. The earlier accusation by Samsung that Apple submitted false documents about the Galaxy Tab is becoming more convincing.
A lawyer makes an humorously obvious statement about the whole incident that certainly bears repeating here. Mark Krul is a lawyer at the Dutch firm WiseMen. He also specializes in IT and Intellectual Property law. Check this out,
Krul said that litigating parties are required by Dutch law to provide “complete and truthful” evidence to the judge, adding that this is even more imperative when infringement on design and copyrights is alleged.
Complete and truthful, huh? Yeah, I think I’d call that a given. What’s the point in having little things like courts and justice otherwise, right? Then again, these are people who learn to get through every loophole of the law so sometimes just a reminder of the basics will help a lot.
Always being a fan of going straight to the source to ask the horse, here’s a statement from Bas Berghuis (a lawyer from Simmons & Simmons) via Webwereld’s article,
“Er is met foto’s gerommeld, dat kan niet,” aldus Berghuis tegen de Haagse rechter. Maar deze claim werd door Samsung tijdens de zitting niet verder onderbouwd met bewijs.
According to Google Translate this basically says something like, “There has Apple not tampered photos I can submitted there are.” I still don’t know what this says, but am pretty sure Yoda is on the board for Google Translate. Seriously though, go to their page and throw the article through Translate for a good thorough article, albeit a little Yoda-esque in its reading.
To wrap it up, the plot is thickening here. Maybe Apple is really doing something fishy, but considering their attention to detail in all things dealing with the public, I personally doubt it. That said, I anxiously await to see how this turns out, and to at least hear Apple’s explanation of the matter.
Source: 9to5Mac
Via: Computerworld, Webwereld
