IT Business
Apple request to block Samsung Galaxy products rejected in Germany
Cupertino had called for a ban on sales of Galaxy Tab 10.1N tablet and Galaxy Nexus
By Ben Camm-Jones | Macworld UK | Published 15:10, 03 February 12
Samsung has won the latest round of its patent infringement dispute with Apple in Germany.
Bloomberg reported that Apple's request to have sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1N tablet and Galaxy Nexus smartphones banned was thrown out of Munich Regional Court.
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The case centred on Apple's claims that Samsung infringed a patent it holds relating to touchscreen technology on smartphones and tablets.
"Samsung has shown that it is more likely than not that the patent will be revoked because of a technology that was already on the market before the intellectual property had been filed for protection," presiding judge Andreas Mueller said.
Patent expert Florian Mueller was surprised at the Munich Court's decision.
"It's relatively surprising that the Munich court doubted the validity of that patent. Judge Lucy Koh in California deemed that patent both valid and infringed," Mueller said, writing on the Foss Patents blog.
"In light of that, I think Apple may very well appeal the Munich I Regional Court's rejection to the Munich Higher Regional Court, which could still grant a preliminary injunction - or Apple might pursue this matter solely within the framework of the full-blown main proceeding before the lower court. Either way, Apple will hardly give up on this patent at this stage."
However, Apple has already notched up a win over Samsung of its own this week, with a regional court in Dusseldorf upholding Apple's request to block sales of the original Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the country, though Samsung is still able to sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1N, a modified version of the Android-based tablet PC.
