A court in Germany has temporarily lifted ban on sale of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Europe. This is a huge setback for Apple’s claim that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 copies elements from the Apple iPad.
Few weeks back Apple sued Samsung over intellectual property copying and last week the Regional Court of Dusseldorf issued an injunction on Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 sale. The injunction covered all of the European Union except the Netherlands where Apple has a separate lawsuit underway. Also recently Apple filed a complaint with the Federal Court of Australia to ban Galaxy Tab 10.1’s release in Australia.
The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the latest tablet from Samsung. The original version of the Galaxy Tab was a 7-inch tablet but this year’s model adopts a similar screen size to the iPad and is marginally thinner than the iPad 2. Apple accused 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 we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”
Samsung issued a statement saying, “”We will take all necessary measures to ensure Samsung’s innovative mobile communications devices are available to customers in Europe and around the world.”
The court is due to hear Samsung’s appeal against the injunction next week.
