Motorola XOOM

Yesterday a German court ordered Samsung to stop selling the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android tablet in that country, and the ruling could stop Galaxy Tab sales in almost all European Union countries — at least until Samsung appeals or Apple’s lawsuit goes to trial. But it looks like Apple isn’t just going after Samsung for allegedly copying the iPad’s design. The company is also suing Motorola.

Apple’s complaint against Samsung includes mention of another lawsuit against Motorola, makers of the XOOM tablet. There have been no injunctions issued in that case yet and there’s nothing stopping Motorola from selling the XOOM in Europe for now. But that could change if Apple has its way.

The European court battles are over the design of these tablet devices, not a particular hardware or software patent. But the two companies have been battling each other over several dozen patents in US courts since last year.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,547 other subscribers

7 replies on “Apple is also trying to stop Motorola XOOM sales in Europe”

  1. Imagaine if a car company sued other car companies because their vehicles were similar in design? There would be very few (if any; with the exception of the Smart car and VW Beetle) car companies and create a monopoly. Perhaps Apple wants to be like Microsoft? Suing companies that they either can not compete against or buy? IMO; the consumer is hurt by this kind of trivial lawsuit.

  2. Industrial Designs are a form of Intelectual Property Rights (IPR) which can be defended. The actual protection of this IPR varies from country to country, if I recall correctly in Germany and some other European countries just by releasing a product you get the protection; hence that’s probably why they using Germany.  In the end it has to be demonstrated and I am sure that people will easily find prior-art (touch-screen phones anyone) and hence cancel the “novel” requirement to have this Right.

  3. Jesus, that is f**ed up, I mean, what kind of design can screen and battery put together in one case have?! There is no way to make other design, its either smooth one like iPad/Samsung or boxy with buttons like ThinkPad. What else?! Yeah, make it round like circle and big, unusable, sssure… Hey, what about patenting square and other geometrical patterns and suing everything and everyone in the world, mathematicians included, Apple, how about this?
    Lame and dumb, thats sad.

  4. I read a comment from a blogger saying that the lawsuits were related to design issues rather than software or technical issues.  I know these big companies apply for a lot of patents, so I am curious to know if these lawsuits are just about these devices looking or behaving too much like an IPOD or IPAD, or is there something more to them.  

  5. Come on now, even the hint of a similar design has Apple in an uproar? Are they afraid of something? They shouldn’t be if they are confident in their own product.

Comments are closed.