15 replies to this topic

[SoLongSidekick]

GizChina reports today that a Chinese company has used leaked iPhone 5 pictures to slap together a knock-off phone (running ICS no less ) and patent the device in China. This of course means that if Apple tries to sell the new iPhone in China the company will be set to sue. The phone is actually pretty beastly; here are the (known) specs:

Goophone I5
- Nvidia Tegra 3 Quad-Core 1.4 Ghz Processor
- 1 GB RAM
- 8 MP Camera
- 4" True 1080P Screen (1280 x 720)
- Android ICS (4.0.x) Operating System (with an iOS theme )
* Not sure why it carries the Honeycomb logo if the device is rocking ICS

While it certainly is funny that this company is sticking it to Apple a bit, I am not quite sure how I feel about this. The entire reason I (and I am sure plenty of you guys) don't like Apple is because they stifle innovation and attempt to prevent progress in the name of profits. I don't claim to know anything about how our patent system works, but I was not aware that you could slap a patent on something like this. Since the design closely follows previous iPhone designs (we all know Apple owns 'rectangles with rounded corners ), I would not be surprised if the Goophone manufacturer does not end up getting sued themselves. It will be interesting to see how this scenario plays out.

[Rom Breaker]

Nice!!! Im getting one!!

[RHChan84]

A "copy" has better specs then half 75% the Android devices in the US. I actually like this.

[Rom Breaker]

A "copy" has better specs then half 75% the Android devices in the US. I actually like this.

Wanted to say 'Kill him!!" but not sure if I would get in trouble. But I was just joking to see if there were any people on here capable of betrayal.

[RHChan84]

Screen too and with ICS. A lot of "higher end" Android devices have similar specs but there are a lot of different android OS devices our there that are on a lower resolution screen, running GB and only a dual core processor. And we usually hear a lot about high end devices but not the lower end ones.

[techno-update]

Oh boy, I love this...
Things Apple can get sued on keep getting higher.

[dautley]

I don't think this was/will be ever intended to sell in the USA so unless the Chines Government has a good reason to side with Apple over Goophone good luck. Another thing China could do is seize all iPhone 5's as copied devices as Goophone came out first.
The only thing Apple might have going for it is China may not want Apple to pull out of manufacturing it's products in China but after this Apple is probably looking at this anyway.
China is probably just sending a message that it's companies are beyond the reach of 12 stupid people in California.

[robthefive0]

You know, these cell phone companies are the ones who are going to start the Clone Wars.....

[Bologna]

Wonder if otterbox makes a defender for that?

[jimyv]

lmao fn great stuff.

[SoLongSidekick]

Since it has the same dimensions as the iPhone 5 you could just use one of those cases.

[DarkOverDroid]

Read about this yesterday. If Apple looses, it will only be because of it being a Chinese company within China. The design of the phone have been patented on the iPhone 4/4s devices, only the size has changed. Since Apple is a patent freak company, I find it unreal that the design would not already be patented, if of course this is the design of the iPhone 5.

[arcanexvi]

I smell a countersuit.

[spike g]

how would one go about obtaining one of these?

[Nanniepoo]

Read about this yesterday. If Apple looses, it will only be because of it being a Chinese company within China. The design of the phone have been patented on the iPhone 4/4s devices, only the size has changed. Since Apple is a patent freak company, I find it unreal that the design would not already be patented, if of course this is the design of the iPhone 5.

My gf is in law school (patent law in fact) and we talked about this. She said design patents are generally dimensionless, so anything relating to that design, no matter the size, would be covered. So it's quite possible that here something like this is already patented. No idea how China's patent system works. But, again, according to my gf, in China it's whoever patents first. So you could talk about your idea, have your idea published, and someone could run to the patent office. Not so here, as long as it's documented you had the idea before it was patented.