Apple vs Samsung: Nuances In UK And US Law

IP History in the making as a US court on Friday 24th August ordered Samsung to pay Apple over $1bn (£664m) after ruling it had infringed Apple's Intellectual Property. Samsung are going to appeal and Apple has indicated it will seek sales bans on eight of the phones at the heart of the lawsuit at a hearing on 20 September. The models include the Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S2 AT&T model, Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, Galaxy S2 T-Mobile model, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G, Galaxy S Showcase, Droid Charge and Galaxy Prevail.

The outcome was very different to the UK court hearing where Judge Colin Birss QC said: "They (the Samsung Galaxy Tablets) do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design. They are not as cool." He said consumers were not likely to get the two tablet computers mixed up and ruled the Samsung tablets do not infringe Apple's registered design. With different nuances in IP law between the US and the UK, different interpretations are placed on whether IP infringement has taken place.

Google, who recently issued a complaint against Apple responded on Sunday in the US. "The court of appeals will review both infringement and the validity of the patent claims," it said. "Most of these don't relate to the core...