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    Different strategies – One goal: Apple vs Samsung

    As we’ve already mentioned multiple times, brand protection is essential for the preservation of the uniqueness and avoidance of awkward situations with consumers or even trials with competitors. The main action needed to protect your copyright rights is patent creation.

    “We're going to patent it all” Steve Jobs

    Patents play one of the most important roles in the protection of company’s inventions. Thus, Apple, for example, patents everything starting from battery chargers and ending with a design of every certain device. Everything that can be patented is patented by Apple in various ways. Such an aggressive strategy ensures protection from competitors and gives a significant advantage in trials. Besides the patents for its inventions, Apple also focuses on the protection of its trademark. In the US there are a few trademarks for the design of the shop, flowers, sounds, and even aromas. Besides word signs and logos Apple successfully used trademarks for various designs and sounds, connected with its products. In 2011 a trademark of the store was already registered in the US. The United States Patent and Trademark Office decided that the design of Apple shops is different from other shops. When the customer sees a glass building he knows that it’s an Apple shop, and not Samsung or Starbucks.

    To protect each aspect of the shop, Apple has also patented the design of glass panels of the building and staircase structures.

    For such a company as Apple, it’s natural to face competition in the high-tech era. This competition appears both in the market and in the court. For example, Apple and Samsung are often in a state of conflict. Apple began multiple patent litigations with Samsung to see if it could keep the company from taking over its market share. Much has been written about their patent litigation, but neither company pushed the other out of the market through patent litigation.

    In its turn, Samsung also pays attention to its brand protection. Thanks to the responsible development of innovation, flawless quality of the products, care about the environment, and ensuring cyber protection of the company it has made its way to the top 5 of 100 Best Global Brands of the authoritative Interbrand rating this year.

    Among key factors that have influenced the increase of brand cost Interbrand brings out the following ones:

    • prompt response to COVID-19, global events on corporate social responsibility;
    • regular premiers of innovative products;
    • constant investments into the development of cutting-edge technologies, such as AI, 5G, and the Internet of Things;
    • and of course, public activity of the company aimed at stable development.

    As means of maintaining its brand identity and relevance Samsung pays attention to environmental problems. Starting 1998 the company has been using a progressive system of waste recycling, including digital ones. In 2018 the company switched to the use of recoverable materials for their package, and for the printing, it uses natural stone or soy-based inks. Having launched Galaxy S10 the company started using organic plastics suitable for biodegradation and further recycling.

    Samsung also cares about cybersecurity. The company has developed the Samsung Knox platform, which is integrated into all personal devices and even household appliances on the hardware level. The data from Samsung apps and services (Samsung Pay, Samsung Health, Samsung Pass) is stored only in an encrypted form. Any attempts of unauthorized access are tracked by KNOX and the user is notified of them.

    Such big and successful brands as Samsung and Apple try their best to protect their copyrights and the uniqueness of their products. In the modern world, you have to be one step ahead of your rivals and protect your back. Brand protection strategies may be similar or completely different, but it doesn’t mean that some of them work better than the rest. They are just different from their rivals' strategies, same at the products, which is the whole point of uniqueness.

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