Apple’s case against Samsung is based on the strong resemblence between Samsung’s Galaxy S and Galaxy S II line of devices. According to Apple, Samsung drastically changed their smartphone design following the launch of the iPhone, leading to the design behind the Galaxy S phones. Tuesday, Apple showed a 132-page document supporting those claims.
The document (via AllThingsD) comes from a 2010 internal evaluation by the Samsung product engineering team that carefully examined differences between the Samsung ‘S1’ and the iPhone. The evaluation is very thorough, comparing apps and functionality between the iPhone and the ‘S1’ with specific suggestions on improving the S1 by implementing features similar to that of the iPhone. In one evaluation, Samsung cites the iPhone menu icon’s soft, comfortable, and three dimensional feel compared their own icons. They go on to essentially state that the look of the iPhone icons should be emulated, but not so much that it actually looks copied.
Samsung’s argues that after its initial design, older design can become an industry standard, and that the document released was an evaluation of a competitors device – a common practice in the tech industry. While certain design ideas are unavoidable (certainly many phones nowadays could be called “black slates with rounded corners”), this document shows that it’s hard to argue that Samsung didn’t take directly from Apple design.