Two Patent Suits Dismissed by German Court in Apple/Samsung Legal War

It’s no secret that Apple and Samsung are not the best of friends. They’ve been firing legal bullets at each other for quite some time now. There’s 278 claims from Apple in Australia, a German skirmish with the Galaxy S II, Galaxy Tab issues in Australia, Antitrust complaints in California, and the list goes on and on and on.
In a seemingly balanced decision, German courts dismissed two patent suits on Friday, one from Apple and one from Samsung. Apple’s slide-to-unlock and Samsung’s 3G/UMTS claims are both on the chopping block. No word from Apple yet, but Samsung is planning an appeal.
More thoughts and a t-shirt after the break.

Frankly, this is getting tiresome. If these companies could focus all that time and money away from the lawyers, we’d all be better off. Google felt it had to buy Motorola for its patent portfolio (and presumably also for its hardware expertise) to protect itself and it’s manufacturing partners. The Nortel bids were through the roof. Nowadays, it seems if you want to get into the mobile game, you need to set aside a big chunk of your resources for legal.