On the eve of Google I/O, Apple has won a legal victory again Samsung in a US Court. Late on Tuesday, US District Court Judge Lucy Koh granted Apple a preliminary injunction that would ban the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the US. Koh writes, “While Samsung will certainly suffer lost sales from the issuance of an injunction, the hardship to Apple of having to compete directly with Samsung’s infringing products outweighs Samsung’s harm in light of the previous findings by the Court.” This injunction affects the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and not the Galaxy Tablet 2 10.1 which was released last month. The injunction will take effect when Apple posts a $2.6 million bond that will protect Samsung from loss if the Korean company proves that the injunction should not have been granted.
Apple spokesperson Kristin Huguet told AllThingsD that “It’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging. This kind of blatant copying is wrong and, as we’ve said many times before, we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”
In its statement, Samsung blasted Apple by saying, Apple sought a preliminary injunction of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, based on a single design patent that addressed just one aspect of the product’s overall design. Should Apple continue to make legal claims based on such a generic design patent, design innovation and progress in the industry could be restricted.”
[Via The Verge and AllThingsD]