Inspiration vs plagiarism

Could not resit a little note on the Apple vs Samsung trial. But the real issue is when does Inspiration from a third party become plagiarism. That a tough question because something similar is definitely allowed.

Function verses style is the problem here especially when the style chosen is minimalist. Clearly logos and brands are off limits but a flat touch screen with a bezel clearly points to function and there is plenty of prior art.

An area where Samsung probably was wrong was the phone icon. Apple is compulsive about art. I once saw a 60 minute video on designing app icons. They are compulsive about look and feel. Green on white phone icon looked to me like a copy.

Reality distortion field at Apple may have finally took over. Your in trouble when you start to believe your own bullshit. They truly believe that they created the iPhone from scratch, that Palm and Microsoft has nothing to do with ideas and prior art. Given how much Palm defined this field Apple should just sign over the company to HP in my humble opinion since it clearly defined the market of truly portable devices.

Apple certainly made an excellent device but they used ideas and technology from a lot of different companies. Apple has ensured that it will spend the next ten years in court. They can probably create a temporary competitive advantage doing so. But somebody is busily working away to create the next advancement and it probably a small company.

When that product hits Apple better be very careful about their inspirational because they may just loose the farm if they are locked out of that product idea.