SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS reworked tablet PC does not look like a copycat version of the iPad, a German court has ruled, affirming a preliminary assessment and dealing another legal blow to Apple.
Apple is fighting several rival makers of smartphones and tablet PCs in courts worldwide over intellectual property.
Samsung changed the design of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 for the German market – naming it Galaxy Tab 10.1N – to get around a sales ban imposed by a court in September, and Apple challenged the new version.
The state court in Duesseldorf said there were “clear differences” between the Galaxy Tab 10.1N and the iPad. It rejected the bid for an emergency ruling in a case where Apple invoked a European design right.
“The Galaxy Tab 10.1N now sufficiently differs from the form Apple has registered as a design right,” the court said. “Apple’s iPads and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1N now are two competing products of equal value.”
Samsung said the ruling affirms its position that the Galaxy Tab 10.1N is distinctive and doesn’t infringe the rights asserted by Apple.
The Galaxy Tab 10.1N remains available to consumers in Germany, Samsung said.
An Apple spokesman declined to comment on the ruling and referred to the company’s earlier statement that Samsung is “blatantly” copying the iPhone and iPad.
“It’s odd to claim that buyers are fooled into thinking they buy an Apple product if they get the Samsung device,” said deputy presiding judge Ulrike Pastohr. “You don’t buy consumer electronics like you would buy butter in a supermarket, you’re much more attentive.
Apple’s battle with Samsung, whose tablets are based on Google’s Android software, has been especially bitter, with the Galaxy devices seen as among the biggest challengers to Apple’s mobile products.
In a global intellectual property battle, Apple has claimed the Galaxy line of mobile phones and tablets “slavishly” copied the iPhone and iPad and has sued the Korean company in the United States, Australia, Japan and Korea as well as in Europe.
Since then, several countries including the Netherlands, the United States and Australia have decided to allow Samsung to sell the Galaxy tablet.
Samsung, which is Apple’s supplier as well as a competitor, has been trying to have the ban on sales of the original Galaxy Tab in Germany overturned while also seeking other means to fight Apple. The ban was upheld by a court last week.
Samsung has counter-sued Apple in Germany, claiming infringements of mobile technology patents.
A court in Mannheim has ruled against Samsung in cases concerning two of the patents and is due to decide on a third on March 2nd. – (Bloomberg, Reuters)
