An US judge decided to stop the sales of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in USA, after Apple’s request, according to Reuters. This is a big win in the patent wars of the recent years, but it’s only a local win. Previously US District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California denied Apple’s request for injunction, followed by a federal appeal court instructing Koh to reconsider the Apple case.
As you know the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the most problematic product that Samsung created over the past years, so much that they had to change its design in several countries to avoid problems with Apple. In Germany, the tablet was banned and it came close to it in Australia as well. There were some problems in the Netherlands as well and now USA… Now Judge Koh is saying that Samsung doesn’t have a right to compete unfairly and infringe product trademarks. What follows is the withdrawal of products from stores and ban, but only after Apple posts a $2.6 million bond to protect against damages in case Samsung wins a later retrial.
The patent war has been going on since 2010 and also involved in it were the likes of Motorola, Nokia and HTC, with the latter also having to suffer some delays, as its products were stopped in customers, because they infringed some Apple patent. Many Apple rivals are saying that the Cupertino giant uses patents too aggressively in order to stop competition. Anyway, Samsung will most likely appeal Koh’s decision, so this is far from over. Good thing they have the Galaxy Tab 2 units to cash in from, right?
