In a surprising turn of events, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been hit with injunction in the US court by Judge Koh for infringing upon the design patent of Apple’s iPad. While dishing out the judgement Judge Lucy Koh particularly noted that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 was “virtually indistinguishable” from the iPad and thus could result in a loss to Apple as Samsung is a direct competitor and the design of the tablets do matter while making purchasing decisions for the customer.
Earlier when Apple had tried to get a ban order on the Samsung Galaxy tab, it was rejected by the courts. Though, Apple made an appeal against the same and they seem to have got second time lucky itself.
The injunction is set to take effect only after Apple submits a bond of about $2.6 million, which would cover Samsung’s losses in case the ruling is reversed. Judge Koh also stated that Samsung had the right to compete with Apple in the market, but they need to do so with non-infringing products.
AS per Foss Patents, Samsung has already filed an appeal merely five hours after the decision was made by Judge Koh. They also indicated that Samsung would try and work around the design of the device as it did in Germany with the Galaxy Tab 10.1N.
Apple and Samsung have been locked in an intense patent battle all across the globe since April 2011, with Apple accusing the latter of slavishly copying their designs of the iPhone and the iPad. The decision would have come as a relief for Apple which has been locked in patent battles with Android OEM’s, with one of their patent cases against Motorola last week being thrown out of the court.
At the same time, certain analysts have suggested that Samsung has lost out on the sales of up to 2 million Galaxy SIII handsets due to shortage of supplies from the market. But recently, Samsung’s president indicated that they have overcome the shortage issues and would be able to post a total sale of 10 million SIII’s by July.
