Apple scores another patent victory Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 banned in Germany
The patent wars are very confusing and I think most people have had enough of it. The legal battles are taking place all over the world and some countries have even sided with Apple with one of their lawsuits brought against Samsung and the Galaxy Tab product line because of Apple claims is a product that “could be confusing to consumers”.
Last week Sammy pulled it’s 7.7 Galaxy Tab off of the IFA Conference display and has not received a Ban from Germany on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android tablet as well. Europe has also been considering Apple’s suit and issued a temporary injunction against Samsung, as well as Apple going after Australia to do the same.
The German “Dusseldorf court on Aug. 9 granted Apple a preliminary sales ban in 26 of the 27 EU member countries, only to scale back its reach a week later over jurisdictional issues.” So for now Samsung can sell through the rest of the devices they have in Germany, but there will be no more shipments of Galaxy Tab 10.1 until Samsung can appeal or get the injunction lifted.
The German court basically said that it agreed with Apple that while Samsung did enough to make the back side of the Tab different from the iPad, it is the front side that is nearly identical. I have been thinking about this all morning and I am wondering what consumer is going to buy a 500-700 tablet on visual impulse? I don’t know of any tablet owner that did not in some way get educated first before making their purchase decision. Even if they decided based on using the device in the store they still knew the difference between the tablets and choose one on it’s merits. I think these lawsuits are frivolous and without merit.
So let’s ask the readers. Apple claims that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 looks so similar that it could confuse consumers Are you in any way confused about the difference between them where it would affect your purchase decision?.
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It is impossible to walk into any store and buy a tablet and walk out thinking you bought an iPad. Common sense ruling needs to apply here.
That being said, at some point these rulings in favor of Apple has to start hurting profit projections for Samsung. The longer this battle goes on and setbacks happen the less the chances of their tablets having success in the market. Between the iPad 3 and the older versions being price cut its going to be a tough road to tow for all Android tablet OEMs.
I don’t think any intelligent person is going to mistake the two. I mean.. one has an Apple logo on it right? And i’m not sure about Germany, but when i walk into a Best Buy… Apple has it’s own dedicated section.
It all boils down to Apple it using a ridiculous patent to try and curtail Samsung’s profit margins/drive them out of the business. I really hope someone files anti-trust complaints…
Worth noting that Apple did not get everything they wanted from this ruling (like the ban being throughout the entire EU instead of just Germany), which by the way is the Germans standing by their temporary ban, the preliminary injunction, which Samsung tried to appeal it appears, that this isn’t some big grand verdict.
Looks like this was handed down after trading hours before the Friday close of the Korean stock exchange but the other minor victories hasn’t seemed to affect the stock, been on a bit of a rally since mid-August.
One thing I like about this is how Apple’s interested in simply guarding their turf, versus getting the other guy to pay to step on the turf. A point of pride, not an exhibition of parasitic lameness.
You know what I mean Smith?
@Doug Simmons: I never know what you mean, you are a mystery wrapped in an enigma.
I may be an enigmatic mystery but as you can tell by my series of avatars I’m dressed to the nines at six and sevens too.
Speaking of numbers, my Chrome version is higher than yours.
I noticed that yesterday and keep forgetting to update. It keeps crashing on me. Shockwave unresponsive.
RIM continuing to fail to dig itself out of this hole. In the past ten days I’ve had three Blackberry users ask me for advice on whether to get a Google phone or an iPhone (I said iPhone all three times, for the record).
Yo Smith, do you think Nokia’s fixing to do a reverse split? Even if Nokia held its earnings level, if people grow as pessimistic about about Nokia as they’ve become over RIM, they’ll hit penny territory and then they’d be liable to get delisted! But if they reverse split, ouch, not a hip thing to do unless your balls are in a vice.
Actually, I take that back. Compared to Sprint, which unlike Nokia is giving away more money than is being given to them, Nokia’s looking healthy. But between the three, Smith, if you had to short one, which? Just say a name of any of the three companies and we’ll move on to enjoying our weekends.
Man, thanks to that widget, the whole world is making sense. 🙂
The fact that Samsung delayed the launch of the Tab 10 after Apple unveiled the iPad 2 should scream “WTF” to legal departments right off the bat. The 10.1 and iPad 2 are very similar in design, and that’s only because of what Samsung did. The original design was much different.
As far as Apple requesting to get paid vs having the devices off the market, I don’t think that the competitors would be able to sell enough products for that to even matter to be honest.
How many iPads sold last quarter? 9 Million? How many devices did the number 2 tablet sell in total? (which is the defunct HP TouchPad btw) About 600k? Even if the Tab 10 sold well (which it isn’t) and Apple tagged on a few bucks to each sale, it wouldn’t really be worth their while.
BTW smith, the picture you used is of the old design. Look at the one being sold and make a comparison there..
http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxytab/10.1/images.html
If that doesn’t look like an iPad…..
If you’re noticing anything along these lines it’s not that you have to go update Chrome in order to keep up with me, it’s just that I’m running the Canary build channel and you’re running a normal channel. No need to worry about updating Chrome, it does most of the work for you and usually without breaking your balls, which is one of its edges, especially from a security standpoint.
As for Flash not being perfect, I agree.
Chris: I’d get the Samsung thing but there just aren’t enough different sizes to choose from. I mean, with the power of 4G and Flash, you can watch at least five embedded youtube videos at the same time.
Just watch, next month we’ll be reporting on the German Samsung Galaxy Tab black market.
embedded youtube videos run just fine (and load quicker I might add) on an iPad 2, oh… and hey! you can buy that in Germany right now…
you could probably just pick up an ipad 3 in a bar in germany and trade it to someone for flying you a tab 10.1