Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Samsung scores win in German patent battle with Apple over its tablets

A regional court in Munich deemed an Apple patent wasn't valid

Samsung Electronics is allowed to continue to sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1N, after a regional court in Munich rejected an Apple motion to block sales of the product due to a patent violation, a spokesman at the court said.

The patent is related to "list scrolling and document translation, scaling, and rotation on a touch-screen display," according to the spokesman. But the court felt the patent didn't include anything new, and therefore wasn't valid, he said.

Apple can appeal the decision, but didn't reply to questions about its plans.

Apple's efforts to block the sale of Samsung's tablets resulted in a small victory earlier this week when the higher regional court in Düsseldorf said it still wasn't allowed to sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany.

That decision is related to the design of Samsung's tablet and follows a verdict and ban in Düsseldorf's regional court last year.

After the ban in the regional court, Samsung developed the Galaxy Tab 10.1N, which has an altered design and is available in German stores.

But Apple went after the new version in both Munich and Düsseldorf.

A verdict in Düsseldorf, which can also be appealed, will be handed down on Feb. 9.

But it isn't looking very good for Apple. In December, a judge at the district court in Düsseldorf issued a preliminary ruling that the Samsung tablet is now sufficiently different.

This week the European Union also get involved in the patent battle between Apple and Samsung. The European Commission is taking a closer look at the way Samsung licenses its essential patents, concerned that Samsung may be in breach of European competition law.

Samsung didn't reply to questions about the verdict in Munich.

Send news tips and comments to mikael_ricknas@idg.com

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Apple, Apple., EU, European Commission, Galaxy, Samsung, Samsung Electronics
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: Android tablets, Apple, hardware systems, Samsung Electronics, tablets
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Bend or break: Flexible Policy
    DON’T. PANIC. Aligning business and IT needs has always been a challenge. Finding the right balance between ensuring the safety of sensitive data and enabling the free flow of information is increasingly difficult in today’s evolving regulatory and threat environment. Read on.
    Learn more »
  • Case Study: Keeping information on the move: Clearswift protects Maman, the logistics experts
    Time is money. Every minute a consignment is held up in transit costs money and causes problems. Web and email are mission critical business tools that enable Maman, and their customers, to efficiently collaborate with partners across the globe. Spam, and other web based threats can result in delays that ultimately lead to missed deadlines - keeping the lines of communication open is therefore a key priority for Maman. Read on.
    Learn more »
  • Oracle SOA vs. IBM SOA - Customer Perspectives on Evaluating Complexity and Business Value
    The Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) model has become the cornerstone of business computing. Its ability to greatly accelerate the development of business-critical applications promotes business agility, decreases time-to-value and total cost of ownership (TCO), and greatly increases the efficiency and strategic value of IT. SOA implementations tend to be complex, IT decision makers should carefully consider their choice of a SOA platform in terms of its ability to simplify the fundamental development, deployment, and management tasks involved. Read on.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments