The German Dusseldorf District Court which granted Apple an injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 across Europe has admitted it has no jurisdiction to stop sales of the tablet in countries outside Germany. The ban has thereby been lifted in all European countries except Germany, until a further hearing between the two parties on August 25.
Sources at Dutch publication Webwereld reported the lifting of the sales ban just a day after the same paper revealed there had been image distortions in Apple’s legal documents, which the injunction had partly been based on.
It also gives Samsung some breathing space as it prepares to undertake its defense at the end of the month, with the Korean firm claiming it had been caught off guard by the ruling. Samsung will now have its day in court to fight back and defend its copyright.
“We look forward to the opportunity to reassert our intellectual property rights at the hearing scheduled on August 25,” Samsung spokesman Kim Titus told RCR adding that his firm was “fully committed to providing our innovative mobile devices to the market without disruption, and ensuring that consumers have a wider selection of innovative products to choose from.”
Titus said Samsung welcomed the Dusseldorf District Court’s decision to suspend the pan-European preliminary injunction and noted “there do appear to be some differences between the images submitted to the court and the actual GALAXY Tab 10.1.”
RCR had previously questioned Mr. Titus on whether Samsung had really been surprised by the injunction, having submitted a protective writ to the same court before the verdict.
“Samsung Electronics filed a protective writ with the Dusseldorf court in late July requesting that we be given adequate opportunity to present our position if a complaint were later filed against us,” Titus explained. The protective writ, however, said Titus “is not the same as having the opportunity to present arguments or respond to Apple’s complaint directly.”
Once manufacturing partners, Apple and Samsung have been battling it out on the legal front for months now, as the tablet wars continue to heat up. Whether Google’s bid for Motorola Mobility and all its patents will change the legal landscape remains to be seen.
