The Samsung v Apple dispute has been brewing for a while now, with European court proceedings in Germany and the Netherlands, and elsewhere worldwide. This UK case is important because it is the first ‘main proceedings’ decision. This means that it is the first substantive hearing in the European Union of the issue of infringement of Apple’s design by Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, 8.9 and 7.7. This decision may therefore have an impact on proceedings elsewhere in Europe.
The validity of Apple’s design registration could not be considered in this case, since the matter is already being considered in proceedings before OHIM (the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market). However, the effect of the prior art was considered in some detail when determining the infringement issue.
In his judgement, HHJ Birss said that he began proceedings thinking that there was no difference between the designs, but that once he ‘donned the mantle’ of the ‘informed user’ and took account of the prior art, he found that the similarities – such as “a flat transparent surface without any ornamentation covering the entire front of the device up to the rim” or “a rectangular display screen surrounded by a plain border of generally constant width centred beneath the transparent surface” – related to known features and so the differences in other areas (mainly the back of the tablet) were more significant.
HHJ Birss also stated that “the [Samsung tablets] do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design. They are not as cool.” He then went on to rule that the Samsung tablets do not infringe Apple’s design, in a victory for Samsung in the long-running dispute between the two multinationals.