Apple wins another round in the fight against Samsung. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is officially banned from being sold in Australia. Apple originally sued Samsung for infringing two patents regarding multi-touch gestures and controls. Back in August, Samsung had originally agreed not to sell the tablet in Australia anyway until the judge made a verdict.
As of today, that verdict has been made clear and is not in Samsung’s favor. The company even issued a public statement on the matter:
“Samsung will continue its legal proceeding against Apple’s claim in order to ensure our innovative products remain available to consumers. This is a part of our ongoing legal proceeding against Apple’s claim. Samsung is also confident it can prove Apple’s violation of Samsung’s wireless technology patents through a cross-claim filed on September 16, 2011 with the Federal Court of Australia, New South Wales. Our wireless standard patents are essential for mobile business. We will continue to legally assert our intellectual property rights against those who violate Samsung’s patents and free ride on our technology.”
In other words, “we’ll get revenge.” Indeed, that’s exactly what Samsung has been seeking lately. Immediately after Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the new iPhone 4S, the company sought to ban sales of the device in France and Italy. This was hardly the first time Samsung took legal action to “assert” its intellectual property rights. It filed a patent complaint against Apple on September 13th, and then filed an entirely new one just ten days after. Obviously Apple has sued a few times as well, but so far it is actually being successful.
In this case, it was a close call, but ultimately Justice Bennett declared that “The balance of convenience was almost even … there were several factors that favoured Apple.” But don’t think that this is the end.