14 DAY TRIAL // Now that the jury has been selected, Samsung and Apple are finally duking it out in court, after a year of pre-trial filings, injunctions, appeals and hostile advertising.
If Apple and Samsung ever settle down and stop fighting over rights to the shape of a tablet, it will make our day, without a doubt.
As it is, we can't actually not cover the lawsuit between them. Having begun yesterday (July 30, 2012), it will last for two weeks at the very least. The two will meet in front of the judge and jury about three times per week.
On this illustrious occasion, we are bringing you the thoughts and opinions of one Kevin Packingham, Samsung's product lead.
Wired has managed to get him to talk about the main gripes he has with the lawsuit and the state of the patent system in general.
One of the main misgivings he has is what many have implied or outright stated: that it is unreasonable that it is possible to fight over rectangles.
“For us, it’s unreasonable that we’re fighting over rectangles, that that’s being considered as an infringement, which is why we’re defending ourselves” Packingham says.
“In some cases, for most of us in the industry, it’s defying common sense. We’re all scratching our heads and saying, 'How is this possible that we’re actually having an industry-level debate and trying to stifle competition?' Consumers want rectangles and we’re fighting over whether you can deliver a product in the shape of a rectangle.”
Sadly, this is just one of those cases where the words “anything is possible” have a less than fortuitous meaning.
Packingham went further and criticized Apple for being the only one “firing the first shot consistently,” especially over things like this.
Moreover, Packingham finally explained how it's possible for Apple and Samsung to be at each other's throats and yet still permit the latter to continue in its role as key supplier of components. Apparently, the two sides of the company (Samsung) operate independently from one another, and he doesn't like it one bit.
“There are times when I’m absolutely appalled that we sell what I consider to be the most innovative, most secret parts of the sauce of our products to some other manufacturer [only to be told] that’s none of your business. You go make your mobile phones and if you’d like to use our components, that’d be great.”
Pakingham hopes that at least one good thing will come out of this mess. If enough people get irritated by this fight over rectangles, it could lead to that broad patent reform we've been praying for, where no-brainers can't, in fact, be patented.