Posted on 08/05/2016 12:24:37 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Samsung Gear came to market in 2013 and it offered a camera and speaker built right into its one and only band and clasp design. After Apple introduced the Apple Watch with multiple band options and its quick and easy install mechanism for changing the bands, Samsung set out to copy that idea as quickly as they possibly could. In a patent application that surfaced today at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office titled "Wearable Device," they discuss their new "exchangeable" strap mechanisms. What struck me was that a great number of their form factor patent figures were actually Apple Watch designs showing that indeed they set out to copy Apple's design – even if they changed the method enough not to get sued. But it's clear that the Samsung engineers were either inspired by Apple's ingenuity or that their bosses handed them pictures of what they wanted their engineers to copy. It's undeniable as you'll see in the 12 patent figures presented below.
(Excerpt) Read more at patentlyapple.com ...
I have changed those. Grab a sewing pin with some vise-grips. This helps with the spring. I sure as heck will not buy an Apple watch just for ease of changing the watchband.
No one said you should buy an Apple Watch. Read every word 10x. No innuendos. No subliminal suggestions. Nada
You said they weren’t innovative. I called you on it. I merely pointed out a very basic thing that Apple completely re-thought. Something watchmakers had been putting up with for hundreds of years. And Apple re-imagined it a dozen different ways just on the bands ALONE.
And, true to form; Samsung is trying to copy.
I do see you as a child. That part is right.
Where I disagree is that I see an American company with tens of Thousands of American jobs, high paying Silicon Valley jobs; having their patents stolen by a RICH Korean company.
And I see an allegedly conservative American laughing about it, because the American company being ripped off is named “Apple”. I am outraged when foreign countries steal IP whether the company is RCA Rscords, Microsoft, John Deere, Catepillar, Remington, Apple, IBM, Intel, or Krispy Kreme.
We either have laws, or we do not. We either protect our patent laws and international patent agreements, or we do not. We do not cherry-pick teams that are allowed to steal IP and others that are not.
If you want to dance like a child; dance by yourself. And expect to be treated like the fool you are.
The patent system stopped being relevant decades ago ,, ESPECIALLY “design” patents ... come on now ,, patenting a rectangle with rounded corners?? What’s next?
Now protecting real innovations ... that’s worth fighting for.
Design Patrnts aren’t worth protecting, huh?
For decades, there were hundreds of different phone designs. Apple makes the iPhone 4/5/6 and suddenly no one can make anything other than a rectangle. Let’s carry that further. Then anyone can make a Corvette clone too, or a Mustang. How about those Golden Arches? Nope. Design Patents are valid just as tech patents.
Look at how Apple took the humble watch bands and changed the very design on how they attach as well as how they function. All valid patents and all worth protecting. The watch layout, function and design again, all unique, valid design patents and worth protecting.
Why is it that you are defending a Korean company’s “right” to steal American ideas, designs and work? It is not like Samsung is a struggling underdog. You are aware that Sumsung makes industrial sized Cargo ships, commercial construction equipment, has a military division as well as consumer appliances well removed from the phones, tablets and watches. I mean it’s not like that they cannot afford their own R&D. Just that stealing other people’s work has a far greater return on investment.
Especially when they have “Americsns” applauding every theft.
you will never understand how much fun it is to yank your chain... bless your heart.
Probably not. I am an engineer and have filed over a dozen patents in my life. Each patent represents years of my life’s work, hundreds of hours of work and tens of thousands of dollars in investments in hardware, experiments and stress that I doubt that you can even begin to comprehend.
So forgive me if I don’t share in your “conservative “ values of watching socialist countries steal American ideas, because you have nothing invested. So very Stalinistic of you.
I take it your patents weren’t for trivialities such as a certain shade of blue for a logo or rounding off sharp edges... That’s what I find entertaining... I fought the engineering vs management wars at a major defense firm for a few decades... How many of those patents are yours and how many did you give up to your employer...
As an engineer, everything I designed belongs to my employer. That’s the price you pay for a (semi) regular paycheck. My parents were for semi-conductor testing of microprocessors utilizing JTAG back in the 90’s, for microprocessor controlled digitally controlled voltage and current regulators integrated into test fixtures, novel designs for SATA connectors as well as designs utilized by the power supply you likely have on your desktop PC at home now.
Do the work, someone steals it. You defend it. Then you get laid off a few months later and rebuild your life. Being an engineer in industry is just not a stable profession, and IP theft is just a part of the turmoil that costs thousands of engineers to lose their jobs, homes and careers. Now I manage teams of engineers for the Goverment. Industry hates me, but the taxpayer loves me. My teams look for fraud and Goverment waste. But nothing we can do about IP theft.
Ugh. No edit function
Pardon the grammar.
Typing on a small screen and didn’t notice my spellcheck “helping”
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