Samsung Announces the “Galaxy Fold” While Apple Works to Finalize Foldable Device Patent
Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy Fold, the first ever foldable smartphone device to be made widely available on the market.[1] The Galaxy Fold is scheduled to launch on April 26th.[2] In the meantime, Samsung is reportedly working on unique designs for two additional foldable phones.[3] Smartphone consumers will not be surprised to learn that Apple is also working on concepts for a foldable device.[4]The tech giant currently holds a patent for “flexible display devices”[5] and filed updates to their patent just last month.[6]
This race towards innovation comes less than one year since Apple and Samsung settled a seven-year-long patent battle.[7] The dispute began in 2011 when Apple sued Samsung for allegedly copying the design and software features of the iPhone.[8] Samsung had made $3.3 billion from the sale of 8.6 million smartphones, the devices at issue in the case.[9] After countersuits, trials, appeals, and a Supreme Court ruling sending the case back to the lower court to reassess the damages amount[10], a jury ordered Samsung to pay Apple $539 million for infringing multiple iPhone patents.[11] A patent is infringed when “in the eye of an ordinary observer, giving such attention as a purchaser usually gives, two designs are substantially the same.”[12]
As for the terms of the settlement, the companies did not disclose them.[13] Nonetheless, this dispute is considered the most prominent case in a series of lawsuits over smartphone patents in the last decade,[14] with Apple and Samsung having spent hundreds of millions of dollars to litigate it.[15] It was also the first design patent case to be heard by the Supreme Court in over a century.[16]
Following last year’s jury award, Apple spokesman Josh Rosenstock stressed the importance of “continu[ing] to protect the hard work and innovation of so many people at Apple.”[17] It appears Apple is doing just that. Its patent application for a foldable device includes diagrams showing various elements of the design Apple is seeking to protect. One diagram shows the device bent into a pyramid shape, presumably allowing for two viewers sitting opposite one another to operate the device at once.[18] Another diagram shows the spring mechanism that allows the device to bend where it does. [19]
It remains unclear whether Apple’s folding device will take the form of a smartphone or a tablet.[20] Either way, Apple is working to ensure that they have the rights to build their device in due time.[21]
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