Samsung has finally scored a victory in the litigation with Apple, in the territory of Australia. The South Korean giant triumphed in the legal battle against Cupertino and managed to have the ban on its tablet lifted. Now the product can be sold in Australia, which is great news, especially since Samsung would have cancelled the launch of the device in this region completely, if the slate wasn’t available by Christmas.
Let me remind you that all this fuss started in April, when Apple started legal action against Samsung in the USA, saying that the tablets and smartphones made by the Asian company are blatant copies of the iPad and iPhone. It’s been many months of lawsuits and problems between the two giants, plus a huge ban for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany and a victory for Apple. For a while it appeared that Australia would also be a no-Samsung land, but in the end the appeal and patience paid off.
Lawsuits between the two have been happening in Germany, Japan, Italy, France and Australia. This week Samsung lost a local battle, as its request to ban Apple from selling the iPhone 4S in France was denied. The ground here was that the handset was supposedly violating patents for wireless communications owned by Samsung. Meanwhile, the creator of the iPad and iPhone lost an important suit in its homeland, not managing to achieve the ban of Samsung device sales in the USA. This request was rejected by the US court.
In Australia the Federal Court ruled on a temporary ban in October for the Galaxy Tab 10.1, but this week they came around and overturned the deal. Will Apple insist to appeal one more time?
