AfterDawn: Tech news

Tim Cook's memo to employees following Samsung verdict

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 25 Aug 2012 6:45 User comments (31)

Tim Cook's memo to employees following Samsung verdict Last night, a jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion in a sweeping victory over Samsung.
Samsung had been accused of infringing on 7 Apple patents, and it was ruled that they in fact had, on all 7 counts.

The case had been thrown out in pretty much every court in the world, including Germany and Korea, but not in the U.S.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has sent a memo to all employees, following the ruling:

Today was an important day for Apple and for innovators everywhere.

Many of you have been closely following the trial against Samsung in San Jose for the past few weeks. We chose legal action very reluctantly and only after repeatedly asking Samsung to stop copying our work. For us this lawsuit has always been about something much more important than patents or money. It's about values. We value originality and innovation and pour our lives into making the best products on earth. And we do this to delight our customers, not for competitors to flagrantly copy.



We owe a debt of gratitude to the jury who invested their time in listening to our story. We were thrilled to finally have the opportunity to tell it. The mountain of evidence presented during the trial showed that Samsung's copying went far deeper than we knew.

The jury has now spoken. We applaud them for finding Samsung's behavior willful and for sending a loud and clear message that stealing isn't right.

I am very proud of the work that each of you do.

Today, values have won and I hope the whole world listens.

Tim


Since taking over for Steve Jobs, Cook has had multiple major successes, including recently having Apple become the highest valued public company of all-time.

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31 user comments

125.8.2012 18:52

I will almost always proudly purchase a Samsung product over an Apple product any day, and this victory reeks of bullshit. Samsung's loss in court here just makes my dislike of Apple and its dogmatic supporters even stronger. I'm sure the fact that Apple is now the face of successful American corporatism had nothing to do with the U.S. court's decision, when international courts wouldn't even hear the case.

225.8.2012 18:53

Don't gloat too soon Apple, there is always an appeals process.

325.8.2012 19:24

I wonder how much apple paid the judge to find in their favor????

425.8.2012 19:50

Originally posted by ivymike:
I wonder how much apple paid the judge to find in their favor????

And how much did Samsung pay you to feel the way you do? :-)

525.8.2012 19:51

Originally posted by ivymike:
I wonder how much apple paid the judge to find in their favor????
Or how many Apple products are now being sent to those jury members as a "thank you".

625.8.2012 20:33

I lol'ed.

That is all

725.8.2012 21:10

would have given both of them nothing.

825.8.2012 21:37

"Values" didn't win.....money, greed and influence is what has won.

925.8.2012 22:50

The box we use to comment on articles here has buttons that are shaped like "rounded rectangles". Apple sues the internet!

1025.8.2012 23:25

Sickening...like beating a blind man with a baseball bat, stealing his wallet, and then proudly proclaiming how justified you are.

1126.8.2012 00:09

Everywhere else the bid has failed on the planet does this mean they were wrong somth'n ain't right backroom deals are going on me thinks,seeing this article doesn't help much when i just finished watching ides of march

1226.8.2012 00:11

I have mixed feelings. As an American i'm glad to see a U.S. company win out over a foreign country's company. But on the other side i'm truely interested in justice and what is right. To this end, and to be fair and honest, it seems to me that if a country which has a country that can impose fines and derive income from a given ruling they will in favor of their own country provided the ruling isn't against a company in their own country. Perhaps i might look at it as tariff legislation.

On the flip side i don't care much for App1e and sorry to see they won.

So i'm mixed on this ruling for different reasons. On the other side it seems to highlight how full of crap the entire patent system currently seems. It really needs to be overhauled to be more meaningful.

1326.8.2012 00:32

This isn't the first time American patent law has been the vehicle for beating up on foreign competitors and it won't be the last.

But be in no doubt that is what goes on.
I'm reminded of the German company that subcontracted a US firm to install a radar surveillance system used in air traffic control.
The American company then patented the design in the US under their name and then launched a law suite against the German company when they tried to install its own same system for another customer.

The whole US patent system is a license for US companies to steal foreign innovations and ideas and keep foreign companies out of its market and profit from their ideas.

The whole issue of patents & copyright needs serious overhaul.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 26 Aug 2012 @ 12:33

1426.8.2012 02:46

Originally posted by SomeBozo:
I have mixed feelings. As an American i'm glad to see a U.S. company win out over a foreign country's company. But on the other side i'm truely interested in justice and what is right. To this end, and to be fair and honest, it seems to me that if a country which has a country that can impose fines and derive income from a given ruling they will in favor of their own country provided the ruling isn't against a company in their own country. Perhaps i might look at it as tariff legislation.
Interesting, but that hardly seems the case...Samsung has factories in the US, Apple does not. What do I care about the location of the primary headquarters when both companies are owned by stockholders all over the world, and when Samsung USA pays taxes on profits just like Apple USA does? Samsung is making jobs in the USA, and they have no reason to other than good will. If they set up tariffs to increase the cost of foreign-made goods, thus decreasing the savings gained by using Chinese slave labor, that would be one thing...but Apple uses Chinese slave labor more than Samsung does...in fact, about the only US-made parts that Apple uses at all are the processors that are made by Samsung, so this ruling is hardly a tariff; it is more of an anti-teriff.


Originally posted by Interestx:
The whole US patent system is a license for US companies to steal foreign innovations and ideas and keep foreign companies out of its market and profit from their ideas.
No, that is just part of it...it is also a tool for large corporations with pools of lawyers to attack start-ups with new ideas, as the little guy will usually go bankrupt while trying to get justice for a stolen patent or while trying to defend himself against a fraudulent patent claim.

Overall, this whole thing just makes me sick...patent and copywrite laws have been screwed up for a long time, but things are getting to the point that it seems there is no hope of ever fixing them. If I wanted to demonstrate the insanity of the system a year ago, I might have tried to file a troll case against someone for using a common shape that I didn't invent...now Apple has not only gotten a jury to agree that they are the only ones who should be able to use a shape that existed long before the company (or even the country) was founded, but the scumbag CEO is boasting about how anyone else who uses the shape is a thief, all while taking money from them for using something that is the most clear example of prior art in recent memory!

1526.8.2012 05:36

the jury "Invested Their Time" they couldn't even be arsed to read the documents given to them, they just "voted" for the American organisation like it was some sort of TV phone in show

1726.8.2012 06:22

I wouldn't expect an iphone or anything apple to be released this year now.

I would expect Samsung to remove their products from being used in Apple devices, I find it odd that the devices are the problem when everything is all software based.

Like double tap on the screen is some how a reason that all galaxy s phones are exact copied of an iphone, hell the S Sii are larger than an iphone and a Siii or almost twice the size of an iphone.

It's quite funny when people come up to me saying I've got an iphone when it's my galaxy s and I tell them this is larger than an iphone, when they see my siii I it's way too large to be anything like an iphone so that question never comes up.

1826.8.2012 09:24

Funny how all these other countries had thrown the case out. Apple had to try a dozen times before they were able to get the win. Ridiculous!

1926.8.2012 11:24

Originally posted by snaketus:
Apple should low-burn in hell!

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Xztz...le_stealing.png
Good one.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 26 Aug 2012 @ 11:25

2026.8.2012 11:27

related:
also, not to speak ill of the dead or anything, but:
http://img.chan4chan.com/img/2011-11-08/Dennis_Ritchie.jpg


2126.8.2012 12:22

You know, now that I think about it... Wasn't Judge Rya the little old lady that bashed her head into the glass wall of the Apple building because she couldn't find her way out?

2226.8.2012 12:38

Originally posted by sammorris:
related:
also, not to speak ill of the dead or anything, but:
http://img.chan4chan.com/img/2011-11-08/Dennis_Ritchie.jpg

Great point. Not only was Jobs a thief, but i would say a hypocrite as well. Jobs and company stole the idea of the mouse and graphical interface from Xer0x, and later tried suing Micr0s0ft for look and feel. Talk about being a hypocrite, if this is speaking ill of the dead, too bad... I'm not saying anything or changing what I'd say if he were still alive...

2326.8.2012 13:44

Originally posted by sammorris:
related:
also, not to speak ill of the dead or anything, but:
http://img.chan4chan.com/img/2011-11-08/Dennis_Ritchie.jpg


Yeah...you shouldn't speak ill of the dead...all those people bashing Hitler, Stalin, Kim Jong Il, Mao, Lenin, Pol Pot, etc really annoy me.[/sarcasm]

2426.8.2012 15:32

I still look at samslung as the trash wal-mart used to sell,lmao!

2527.8.2012 00:13

Time for Samsung to innovate. Let's see what a little R&D investment can do for them.

2627.8.2012 06:11
aeonstom0
Inactive

like if the employees will get a raise why not drop the prices for their shitty product that I hold in contempt

2727.8.2012 15:35

If you hold their shitty product in contempt, why do you care about the price? I don't see Apple fans complaining about the price of Samsung's products. Just enjoy your cheap knock off iPhone wannabe.

2827.8.2012 17:01

Originally posted by SeventhSon:
If you hold their shitty product in contempt, why do you care about the price? I don't see Apple fans complaining about the price of Samsung's products. Just enjoy your cheap knock off iPhone wannabe.
I don't think any Android device has ever wanted to be an iPhone. And if my Samsung products did, I wouldn't buy them. Samsung makes sleeker, more powerful, and cheaper devices than Apple does because Apple's disgusting profit margins come from fans that dogmatically claim anything with an Apple logo on it is technological gold, irrespective of specs or utility.

2928.8.2012 23:49

Originally posted by SeventhSon:
If you hold their shitty product in contempt, why do you care about the price? I don't see Apple fans complaining about the price of Samsung's products. Just enjoy your cheap knock off iPhone wannabe.

I love it when a contradiction comes together!

301.9.2012 01:51

Originally posted by xnonsuchx:
Originally posted by ivymike:
I wonder how much apple paid the judge to find in their favor????

And how much did Samsung pay you to feel the way you do? :-)
I too feel the same way as ivymike. However Samsung did not pay me anything. Only thing they did was make available in Indian market very reasonably prices LCD monitors (I have one which is 12 years old and another one 3 years old). Made available to me a fully functional / totally unlocked smartphone with EVERYTHING I want for around US$ 140/=

311.9.2012 11:09

Originally posted by pmshah:
Originally posted by xnonsuchx:
Originally posted by ivymike:
I wonder how much apple paid the judge to find in their favor????

And how much did Samsung pay you to feel the way you do? :-)
I too feel the same way as ivymike. However Samsung did not pay me anything. Only thing they did was make available in Indian market very reasonably prices LCD monitors (I have one which is 12 years old and another one 3 years old). Made available to me a fully functional / totally unlocked smartphone with EVERYTHING I want for around US$ 140/=


Samsung didn't pay me anything either...but they did sell me a 40" LED TV for $300 less than the price of the Sony next to it in the store that it put to shame. They also created the first 5" phone (something I had been wanting since Android 1.6), and are about to release a 5.5" phone that I'll be getting (I would already have the 5" one, but it is only on AT&T).

What did Apple do to make me a happy customer? Well, at least they didn't put one of their crummy GUIs onto that Apple IIe I bought (the last Apple product that I actually paid for as opposed to getting for free when someone else got sick of it or it died).

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