

Why Apple Went To Dusseldorf - drungli
http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2011/08/24/why-apple-went-to-dusseldorf/

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philp
'Embarrassing revelation' indeed. How in the world is it possible that a
German court can impose a EU-wide ban in a trial that contained what is
basically fabricated evidence? How did this slip past Samsung's lawyers ( I
remember this whole thing blowing up at the hands of the tech media, no? )
Didn't the court do its own, independent, impartial research into the matter?
Why didn't the court compare some physical devices as opposed to basing a
decision with such far-reaching consequences on some printed pictures?! Can
somebody who has studied the law explain to me the benefit of allowing
plaintiffs to have command over which court they want to litigate in? It feels
self-defeating.

After reading this I'm also surprised how the author of this article can
possibly assess that, "there’s also Dusseldorf, Germany, where judges are
proving themselves quick [and] competent" after this incident that demonstrate
just how patently (!) incompetent they really are. But I guess this is just
testimony to the fact that actual evidence and reason are tertiary in a
justice system that can be defeated by cherry-picking courts that are friendly
to whatever the litigator's cause. How can the public trust in a judiciary
framework that functions with this total lack of precision and attention to
detail.

On a different note, and I'm sure nobody really cares but since Düsseldorf is
my hometown I'd like to point out that it is spelled with an umlaut. If for
some reason you can't do that, how about spelling it Duesseldorf :) That's how
it's done in German if you can't use the umlaut for any reason (url's etc.).
Is it common to just leave out diacritics when dealing with foreign vocabulary
in the english language ?

~~~
GHFigs
_It is understood that the judge involved in the German case made his ruling
based on a physical examination of the two tablets, rather than relying
Apple's paper submission alone._ \--
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14542200>

~~~
philp
Thanks. Considering another hearing was scheduled after the court was informed
that evidence was misrepresented I was assuming that it played a significant
role in the courts decision. Maybe it's just a formality then...

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mrich
As a german I am ashamed that a german court will be abused for litigation as
a means to compete, costing me both in taxes and in the higher price I have to
pay for products in the end. And people wonder why the economy is stagnating
in the western countries. All our money goes to taxes and lawyers.

~~~
hvs
You could say the exact same thing and just exchange "German" for "American."

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throwaway0815

      Now there’s also Dusseldorf, Germany, where judges are proving
      themselves quick, competent, and more often than not, erring on
      the side of the patent holder.
    

My employer has recently also been sued by an American company in the
Dusseldorf court for an alleged patent violation, so I can confirm the part of
"erring on the side of the patent holder" from personal experience.

In this case, the dispute was over the production of a chemical substance and
the other party alleged that this stuff simply cannot be produced without
violating their patent. Our company's lawyers and chemists presented a huge
mountain of experimental data and analysis stating a number of alternative
ways to produce the stuff, including the method currently used by our plants
in Asia. The court then took this information and asked the plaintiff "does
this look reasonable to you?" to which they of course answered back "no way!"
and hence essentially won the case. Their final verdict was basically an exact
copy of the plaintiff's statements.

So I don't know about the part of being competent, but this court is basically
issuing default judgements on the behalf of patent holders. Being there
personally for some of the hearings, I also got the impression that certain
lawyers are very well connected to this court, causing them to just wave
certain cases through without too much consideration.

Our case ended with an out-of-court settlement and I subsequently lost track
of the final outcome but it sure was an eye-opening experience for me just
watching how it's done.

------
tzs
> Patent-holding plaintiffs won 63% of all infringement cases in Dusseldorf
> between 2006 and 2009, according to recent research by the Global IP
> Project, a series of studies initiated by the law firm Finnegan. That’s well
> above the global average of 35%

I'm surprised the global average is so low. I'd expect plaintiffs to win a
significant majority of cases for the simple reason that plaintiffs are the
ones that decide whether or not to sue.

