Apple wins legal victory against Samsung in South Korea

Samsung lost its bid on Thursday to ban sales of Apple's older iPhone and iPad models in South Korea. A court dismissed a lawsuit, filed in March 2012, claiming the U.S. firm had infringed on three of Samsung's mobile patents.

The lawsuit was another part of Samsung's global courtroom war with Apple dating back to 2011 when the iPhone company first sued Samsung for copying the look and feel of its products.

"We are glad the Korean court joined others around the world in standing up for real innovation and rejecting Samsung's ridiculous claims," Apple Korea spokesman Steve Park said.

A judge at the Seoul Central District Court said that Apple products did not violate Samsung patents on the display of short messages and group messaging features. The court ruled against a sale ban on the products and subsequently threw out Samsung's claim for $95,100 (£58,000, AU$105,000) in damages.

Necessary measures

Samsung said it would carefully review the ruling before deciding on whether to launch an appeal. "We are disappointed with the court's decision …. Apple has continued to infringe our patented mobile technologies [so] we will continue to take the measures necessary to protect our intellectual property rights," Samsung said in a statement.

Similar rulings in the past have gone in Samsung's favour. In August last year the same South Korean court ordered Apple to pay $38,000 (£23,100, $AU42,000) in damages for infringing on wireless technology patents.

Thursday's court ruling comes after a German court in Mannheim dismissed Apple's claim that Samsung infringed on a utility patent. Apple and Samsung have gone to trial twice in the past two years in California, where juries awarded Apple $930 million (£567 million, AU$1 billion) in damages.

• The Apple and Samsung saga has had many clashes before

With latest shuffle, Samsung bets on cameras setting its phones apart

After creating smartphone-camera hybrid oddities such as the Samsung Galaxy NX and Galaxy S4 Zoom, it seems the Korean electronics maker is doubling down on cameras setting its cell phones apart.

Samsung has done a little deck shuffling, placing its camera division under the guiding wing of its mobile biz.

Korea IT News reported that the Galaxy-phone maker hopes the move will create synergies between the two divisions. On one end, the mobile segment can share its know-how to create better, wirelessly connected digital cameras.

The ultimate goal is apparently for Samsung to overtake the mirrorless camera market by 2015.

But like all good partnerships, the street goes both ways, and Samsung wants the mash up to help "differentiate" its smartphones by packing them with the latest and greatest camera tech.

Adapt or die

This latest internal move is a smart one for Samsung, and builds on what the company has already done with its smartphone-camera amalgamations.

Samsung need only look at Nokia for inspiration of what installing better cameras in your handsets can do. Thanks to devices like the 41MP Lumia 1020, Windows Phone has seen a surge in usage, especially in Europe.

Only time will tell if Samsung's corporate tango will dramatically improve the quality of its smartphone cameras and creates a whole new line of connected cameras.

We doubt we'll see any groundbreaking new products come out of this closer partnership until Photokina, the mega photo gear show going down next September.

But the tech industry has always held surprises before, and we'll snap up anything we see at CES 2014 and Mobile World Congress.

• Speaking of phones and cameras, the Galaxy S5 is said to come with a new 16MP snapper.

'Apple doesn't own sexy,' Samsung claims as Schiller cries wolf once again

Apple's top PR bod Phil Schiller has claimed Samsung's trademark infringement diminished the global view of the company's innovative verve and made it more difficult to sell the iPhone and iPad.

During the retrial (as if the world needed one) of the great Apple vs Samsung patent war in the US, Schiller said Samsung's copycat tactics caused the tech buying public to doubt Apple's design skills.

Schiller, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide product marketing, told Judge Lucy Koh he was "quite shocked" when Samsung unveiled the first Galaxy S. "They went and copied the iPhone," he said.

"It weakens the view that the world has for Apple," Schiller added, saying it caused consumers to "question our innovation and design skills in a way that people never used to."

Bringing sexy back

Samsung's legal representatives hit back by holding up a Galaxy Tab and asking: "Apple doesn't own a patent on a product being beautiful or sexy. Isn't that correct? Apple doesn't own the right to preclude the design of this hardware?'

Upon being shown the 10-inch Galaxy Tab, Schiller replied: "I don't know which Samsung devices are allowed to copy our devices and which ones aren't. It looks like an iPad."

The retrial taking place in California doesn't centre on whether Samsung is guilty of patent infringement, but around the damages that Samsung should pay.

In August last year, the jury ordered Samsung to pay $1.05 billion in damages, (around $650m, AU$1.12bn) although that was later rescinded to a lower amount.

Apple wants $380m (around £235, AU$406m) in damages, but Samsung only reckons it should have to pay $52m (around £32m, AU$55). Regardless of the outcome we're pretty sure they'll be at least 5,627 appeals and counter-appeals from one side or t'other, so strap yourselves in guys.

Apple's spending billions on robots and lasers to get the jump on Samsung

Cupertino's been investing in some new gadgets, but nothing with an i-prefix for you to start queuing for: Apple is spending $10.5 billion on robots, lasers and other production line tech to get the jump on Samsung.

The new gizmos are said to include a polishing machine specially for the iPhone 5C's plastic casing, lasers and million machines which are used to craft the MacBook body and camera testing equipment for the iPhone and iPad lenses.

The anonymous sources told Bloomberg that Apple has also been working on a number of exclusive machinery deals, effectively cock-blocking Samsung from getting its hands on the same tools.

While Apple's dropping $10.5 billion over the next financial years, Samsung has reportedly put $22 billion aside for the same purpose.

Factory floor

Apple is traditionally very protective of its manufacturing processes. The supply chain sources explained that most companies create a prototype and then send it to the (usually overseas) manufacturing plants to come up with the process for mass producing it.

Apple, however, hires experts and sends engineers over to Asia to test and ensure the process runs smoothly, as well as inventing equipment to do jobs that existing machines can't do.

It's not often that we get a glimpse into Apple's processes, but Bloomberg's chatty insider was very forthcoming with the production line anecdotes: when creating the iPhone 4 back in 2010, there was no machine to test certain gyroscope functions, so Apple engineers created one.

Bloomberg's source explained: "The resulting contraption has a granite base and cubes that spin several iPhones around 30 degrees a second to test that the movement-tracking technology is functioning. Apple then had enough of the machines made to place at the end of suppliers' assmebly lines in China for iPhones to run through."

• Worth it? We named the iPad Air the best tablet so Apple must be doing something right