Apple wins injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the US. Sales halted
By Vlad Bobleanta on 27 Jun 12If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. And again. And again. And keep at it.
That seems to best describe Apple’s patent war against its Android device-making rivals. This time, it’s a win for Apple. Which, surprisingly or not, isn’t something we see very often, despite the company’s all-in approach to patent litigation.
US District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California backed Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction against sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the US. Translation? For now, Samsung won’t be able to import new Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets into the US. Its retail partners will, however, be allowed to sell off the stock they’ve got.
This only concerns the original Galaxy Tab 10.1 from last year. The new Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 isn’t affected. Which means this decision is unlikely to cause great concern for Samsung, since the original Galaxy Tab 10.1 was probably slowly making its way into the history books anyway.
The same judge had initially denied Apple’s request for an injunction on the tablet and a number of Samsung Galaxy smartphones. However, a federal appeals court instructed her to reconsider Apple’s request regarding the tablet. And so she did, it seems.
Samsung has obviously appealed against the decision, but the injunction won’t be suspended pending that. Apple was required to post a $2.6 million bond to protect against any damages suffered by Samsung if the injunction will be overturned at some point.
“Although Samsung has a right to compete, it does not have a right to compete unfairly, by flooding the market with infringing products”, judge Koh said.
Before you go off celebrating Apple’s win (or get depressed about Samsung’s loss, depending on which side of this you find yourself on), keep in mind that all of these things are usually pretty dragged out. Bottom line: it will take a long while until we find out if this injunction will be forever, so to speak. And even if it is, it’s only managed to ban a pretty old product from the US market.
If Apple wants Samsung’s newer tablets banned, it will have to go through all of this once again. And so the patent war goes on and on… making many lawyers rich in the process.
Via Reuters
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- Australian court upholds injunction against Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Apple rejoices
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