Thank you, man. I tried to make this point and I got rated down. I used to be a bit critical about how American tech companies do business, but once you get to Asia you see how real hard ball is played. I can't fault Apple at all for what they are doing.

I agree with your sentiments, but I think your perspective would be different if this was a Chinese company and they barred the Iphone from being sold in China and then sold a very similar looking device with an OS licensed and then designed to function as similarly as possible. Sometimes legitimate patents really are violated.

Nope, and that's why Apple is in the right here. Spend 5 seconds actually examining the allegations and you will see Apple is on very solid ground, the look and feel of the Galaxy Tab is clearly inspired by several patented aspects of the IOS interface. Or did everyone come up with those things at the same time? C'mon man, nothing is easier to prove than hardware/interface ripoffs. As I said in my other comment, just because lax patent laws in the home country let the product roll out doesn't mean Apple is obligated to let Samsung sell these things all over the world.

I guess you have to live abroad to really appreciate how badly some foreign companies abuse their position of privilege in their own domestic economies to see that U.S. companies aren't the great evil megalomaniacs they are often portrayed as. Apple has a unique design philosophy and really does innovate in many ways. If any of you spent a year in Korea working in IT or anything related you would be blown away by the cynical way patents and design concepts are viewed here. I'm not an apple fanboy, in fact I doubt I will ever own an apple computer. But Samsung couldn't invent an apple level product to save their lives, and anyone who doubts that just need to take off the blinders and really look at products like the Galaxy tab. If that was a Microsoft product you would all be lining up to scream about how big of an apple rip off it was. Anyway, I don't want to get dragged into the constant brand loyalty wars that pervade internet commenting. I was simply trying to make a point about the protectionist policy way that a lot of asian (especially Korean) companies do business. If you think Apple is bullying Samsung with this, you need to know the history of how Apple products have been excluded from the market in Korea.

Sorry I'm with Apple on this one, Samsung and the other Korean chaebol build market share by leveraging their outsized influence with the Korean govt. to basically exclude competitors from the Korean market. Despite a huge popularity of Apple products here, they are often prevented from launching for a year or more due to shady practices on Samsung/LGs part. Their telecoms, electronics companies, and even entertainment industry have zero respect for IP or copyright law, and it shows in how the relentlessly rip off ideas from other companies. Then they are surprised when their attempts to compete in international markets aren't well received or, in this case, are exposed as shameless ripoffs and smacked down by international patent law. Yeah, they make some good TVs and other electronics, but their ability to innovate is severely restricted (mostly by their stifling corporate culture and domestic cronyism) and that shows more and more the bigger they get.