Apple and Samsung’s court battles are well documented in the blogosphere, and in the very latest, Apple has been granted an EU-wide injunction preventing sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 7.7.
This particular episode in the ongoing debacle seems to have raised the most curiosity, for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, the timing of this sales ban seems a little strange, given Google’s Nexus 7 – which is more powerful and at a much better price, is currently flying off shelves, and considering the new ASUS-manufactured slate is also running Android Jelly Bean 4.1, would appear Apple has prevented a very low number of unit sales.
As well as the strange timing, the ruling is in start contrast to last week’s UK ruling, which saw Apple ordered to issue a series advertisements, clearing its bitter rival of any wrongdoing. Judge Colin Birrs ruled Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 7.7, 8.9 and 10.1 were "not as cool" as the iPad, thus did not infringe on any of Apple’s registered patents.
Nevertheless, the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court ruled the Galaxy Tab 7.7’s designs infringed on Apple’s iPad patent designs, and while it decided the Galaxy Tab 10.1N was not in breach of the same patents, it’s still another blow to Samsung, and the South Korean outfit was said to be "disappointed with the court’s ruling."
With so many patent battles occurring between the two tech giants across the world, there appears no clear end in sight, but while Apple and Google continue the tit-for-tat regarding their tablet offerings, Google’s Nexus 7 – or at least the 16GB iteration – is pretty much sold out in most places of the world, and looks set to be a real challenger to the iPad’s dominance.
The ruling will not likely be significant in terms of actual sales for the reasons aforementioned, but you get the feeling Samsung is growing extremely tired of the courtroom onslaught from Apple, and eventually something will have to give.
Instead of chasing down every avenue versus Samsung, you feel Apple should be concentrating its efforts on countering the Nexus 7, which bears the hallmarks of an iPad killer. Then again, given the new slate from the Big G includes a Smart Cover-like implementation, the likelihood of Apple suing once again would seem high.
(via Phandroid)
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