Apple’s legal battle against Samsung in Germany has grabbed a number of headlines lately. But while Apple has won several of the preliminary rounds to ban sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in that country, it turns out Apple’s victories may be virtually meaningless at this point. You can still buy Samsung tablets in Germany, and it looks like you’re probably be able to continue doing so for the foreseeable future.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

The lawsuit Apple has challenged basically accuses the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 of being a knockoff of Apple’s iPad. The case is still proceeding through the courts, but while a final decision could be as long as a year away, Apple has sought a preliminary injunction that would prevent Samsung from selling the tablet in the meantime.

A German court granted that injunction… and then recently upheld it, which means that Samsung will either need to appeal to a higher court to overturn the ban, or wait for the final ruling.

Update: Samsung has appealed.

But here’s the thing — the German court only has jurisdiction over what Samsung’s German division does. While the court has ordered Samsung Germany not to sell the tablet in Germany or any other EU member country, Samsung is an international corporation based in Korea. There’s nothing preventing the parent company from distributing the tablet in Germany or other EU nations.

That means that retailers can not only sell any remaining stock — but they can also reorder tablets from Samsung… just not from Samsung Germany. Reuters reports that’s exactly what at least one chain of German electronics stores plans to do.

Could the preliminary injunction make things a little more complicated for Samsung and its retail partners? Sure. But it looks like the ruling may not have that much impact on German consumers interested in picking up a Samsung tablet.

There’s still no way to know for certain what will happen once the court actually rules on the larger issue of whether Samsung’s tablet violates Apple’s design rights.

via OS News

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5 replies on “Apple’s hollow victory? Samsung Galaxy Tab still on sale in Germany”

  1. You can add the German judicial system as part of the good ‘ol Apple fanboy club.  

    I’m also gonna have my lawyers bring to court anyone who is manufacturing the wheel.  I have a patent on that.

  2. 감사합니다 for commenting, I guess patent laws are complicated and a mess everywhere. 

  3. Furthermore individual Germans can order the Galaxy Tab  direct from Samsung, Amazon and many eRetailers.  The Galaxy Tab both the 7″ & 10″ are so far surperior than that iCrap thing.  My mom has the 7″ my brother and I have the 10″ and they are better looking, faster, the screen puts the ithing to shame, AND they do more.

    The former steve jobs, and apple are simply afraid of Samsung and the Galaxy Tab.

    1. Yes, there have been plenty of tablets that were more iPad like than the Samsung offerings.  Especially in the China market that even used the same parts like the same IPS screen, but Samsung is easier target and more of a threat to Apple’s dominance.

      The main patent they are using is also very vague and could be applied to just about any tablet.  Along with photoshopping comparison images to make the Samsung tablets and phones look more like Apple’s is pretty shady in of itself.  So clearly anti-competitive effort on Apple’s part.

      However, Patent laws are a mess these days and they all need major overhauls to prevent such nonsense and wasting of time.

  4. I do hope motogoolgle keeps flexing it’s new patent muscles until Apple backs down on its patent trolling. Samsung is putting out some really innovative work like the 7.7 and the note w/ Stylus, which have design elements which are explicitly considered heresy by the “think different” crowd, yet are being suppressed.

    Had Xerox and IBM been half as asinine with patent trolling w/ Apple in the 80’s they would have been a grease spot.

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