Samsung tablet sales ban is lifted in Australia

SAMSUNG Electronics won the latest round of its bruising global patent fight with Apple Inc when an Australian court yesterday lifted a ban on the sale of its Galaxy tablet computer in time for Christmas.

But the South Korean firm’s triumph in Sydney was tempered by a setback the previous day in Paris, where a court rejected its bid to block sales of Apple’s iPhone 4S in France.

Apple and Samsung have been embroiled in some 30 legal cases in 10 countries since April as they jostle for the top spot in the smartphone and tablet markets.

The Australian High Court ruling allows Samsung to offer the device to Australian shoppers for the final weeks of the key Christmas shopping season, and came a week after a US court denied Apple’s plea to ban Galaxy phones and tablets in the country.

Apple on Thursday appealed against the US decision, which deprived the iPhone and iPad maker of crucial leverage.

In France, Samsung’s bid to impose a preliminary sales ban on the iPhone 4S was rejected. Calling the request out of proportion, the court also ordered Samsung to pay €100,000 of Apple’s legal fees.

Samsung said yesterday it would review the written grounds for the French ruling and continue to exercise all available options to assert its intellectual property rights.

Apple first sued Samsung in the US in April, saying the firm’s smartphones and tablets slavishly copied its iPhone and iPad.

Samsung shot back, suing Apple for infringing on its telecommunications technology, and later expanded its suit to include Apple’s iPhone 4S. Samsung filed preliminary injunction motions against the iPhone 4S in Japan, France, Italy and Australia in October.

In Australia, sales of iPhone 4S are allowed to continue after a court agreed to hear a patent infringement case brought by Samsung in March.

“If the Italian bid [by Samsung] also fails, the time may come for both Apple and Samsung to realise that you can’t win a marathon with a sprint,” said intellectual property expert Florian Mueller.

“The problem with those ‘sprints’ — in terms of requests for preliminary injunctions that courts can grant after a fast-track proceeding — is that when they fail, they do nothing to enhance the credibility of the respective plaintiff.”

Samsung’s Galaxy tablet 10.1, which is considered one of the main alternatives to Apple’s iPad, has been kept out of the Australian market since late July.

The Australian market, while not huge, is the first launch market for Apple products outside the US.

In late November, Samsung won a rare legal victory after an Australian Federal Court unanimously decided to lift a preliminary injunction, imposed by a lower court, on sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Apple had appealed against the decision in the High Court. Samsung is the world’s top smartphone maker, but a distant second to Apple in tablets.

The quarrel has triggered expectations that some of the pair’s $5 billion (€3.74bn)-plus relationship may be up for grabs.

Samsung counts Apple as its biggest customer and makes parts central to Apple’s mobile devices.

— Reuters