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Apple blatantly copies the Swiss Federal Railway clock for iPad clock app

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by Robert Nazarian on
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Unless you’ve been living under a rock or on a different planet you already know that Apple has accused many for blatantly copying their UI and hardware. Of course Samsung is at the top of that list and already owes Apple $1 billion. Yesterday, Apple released iOS 6 and it appears the clock on the iPad is an exact copy of the station clock at the Swiss Federal Railway.

The iconic clock was originally designed by Hans Hilfiker in 1944 and the railway owns both the trademark and copyright for the design. It looks like the railway is already aware of the situation and is demanding compensation from Apple for its usage. I highly doubt Apple has any artwork dating back to the 1940′s showing this design, and even if they did, it wouldn’t matter based on how the courts look at things. Just how much the Swiss Railway could be awarded for this is anyone’s guess, but with the amount of iPad’s in existence, it can’t be cheap.

source: gizmodo

» See more articles by Robert Nazarian


Categorized as Android News

  • ickyfehmleh

    I thought this was an Android blog?

    • ari_free

      It won’t be if Apple sues and bans Android to death.

    • RobertNazarian

      We are, but this is definitely related with all the “copycat” news and patent lawsuits we’ve reported about.

  • http://twitter.com/lwabbit22 Lwabbit22

    Apple loves to do this. You can’t copy, but we can!!

  • http://twitter.com/JiminCA Jim

    They look nothing alike. The black on the left is much darker. The minute ticks (not 5, 10, etc.) are thicker on the left. The shade of red is different. The one on the right has a blur around the red “ball”….the left does not. The left has a silver border, the right does not. The left has some sort of logo bottom of center and right does not.

    • RobertNazarian

      You have to be kidding right?

      • lol

        lmao!

    • Frank

      Hopefully they also patented the rounded shape of the clock.

    • http://twitter.com/JMOBILEHITE352 JAN J*MOBILE E. HITE

      The CLOCK on the LEFT is the REAL 1 & 3D, The 1 on the RIGHT is the iPAD VERISON.

    • http://MyShocker.com Nudo

      Clearly they were smart enough not to copy the logo. Lol

  • ohcomeondude

    Apple is no longer a cool company. Hope they rot.

  • Huckabuck

    This is how Apple does business.

  • http://twitter.com/JMOBILEHITE352 JAN J*MOBILE E. HITE

    APPLE HONESTLY TRIED to COPY the ORIGINAL CLOCK! This is VERY OVIOUS! Even THO, the HANDS are SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT!

    • http://MyShocker.com Nudo

      That was hard to read :(

  • Ed

    exact copy is a terrible affirmation here. As a designer and not defending apple, this maybe, and I say maybe, inspired by. Not a copy or an exact copy. The design lines and style is very different. the only thing that could be a flag but of course if they copyrighted is the red circle on the seconds marker. I think this a little out of proportion. I can point out many clocks that look closer to this one but it maybe from a small manufacturer in China that no one would want to sue.

    • RobertNazarian

      “inspired by”? I felt the same way when it came to Samsung vs Apple, and we know how that all panned out. Apparently, there’s no such thing as “inspired by” in the legal system.

      • Space Gorilla

        There’s no doubt the design of the clock was copied. Apple has copied iconic designs before. I would guess it was a misunderstanding about licensing. This clock design is widely licensed. All Apple needs to do is pay a licensing fee, and if you think the fees are going to be anywhere near Samsung’s penalty (or that the scope of this incident is anywhere near the same), you’re delusional. I dig Apple products, but it’s clear Apple copied this design and needs to pay for it. It’s also clear that Samsung copied Apple’s industrial design, it wasn’t ‘inspired by’, it was copied. If you can’t see that you’re allowing bias to cloud your eyesight.

  • Clive Jerry

    Sue them . . . Sue them

  • Paul

    These are completely different, the time on the one on the left is 12:40:43 (or is it 00:40:43) and the one on the right is 07:22:09 (or is it 19:22:09).

    • http://MyShocker.com Nudo

      Lol!

  • mtwtfss

    When Swiss federal railway will be sued

  • http://MyShocker.com Nudo

    I didn’t know you could patent that, but hey Apple does it all the time. Apple sucks as a company.