A German appeals court recently sided with Apple in upholding an earlier ruling which banned Samsung from selling the original versions of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 in Europe’s biggest economy. The decision which was made by the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court (DHRC) upholds rulings from last September but does so based on Germany’s unique unfair competition law rather than the earlier court’s finding that Samsung committed a violation of Community design. This being the case, Apple’s won’t be seeing the same success replication the decision in other European countries, according to legal analyst Florian Mueller.
Samsung succeeded in defeating design-right claims by Apple that could have contributed to a broader, more material ruling covering most of the European Union. The ruling applies to both the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and smaller GalaxyTab 8.9 but does not affect the GalaxyTab 10.1N, which is a modified version of the infringing tablet that Samsung concocted in an attempt to bypass the German ban. The model remains on sale ahead of formal ruling on the matter by the DHRC expected on February 9th.
Samsung is just one of the many mobile device markers that Apple is fighting in courts across the globe over alleged intellectual property violations. It also has sued electronics makers in the United States and other parts of Europe, Australia, Japan and Korea. Samsung just happens to be one of the company’s that has fired back with counter-suits claiming that Apple’s devices infringe on three of its patents but has so far lost rulings on two of the three, with the final patent to be addressed in a March 2nd ruling.
Source: Florian Mueller
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