Edible Apple

Some bad news for Samsung today as a German court granted Apple a preliminary injunction preventing Samsung from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the entire European Union save for the Netherlands.

FOSS Patents reports:

Apple asked the Landgericht (district court) of Düsseldorf, Germany, to order an injunction under which Samsung is threatened with fines of up to EUR 250,000 (US$ 350,000) for each violation or imprisonment of Samsung’s management for up to two years in the event of continued infringement. Those are standard sanctions under German tort law for contempt of a preliminary injunction.

Preliminary injunctions in Germany take immediate effect, though an EU-wide one may require additional registrations in other countries (possibly a mere formality). There can be a near-term hearing at which the decision may be reversed, but I’ve also seen cases in which such injunctions were in force and effect until the end of a main proceeding, which could easily take more than a year.

Things certainly aren’t looking good for Samsung and Android in general. Apple recently scored a significant victory at the ITC in its action against the HTC and earlier this month Samsung agreed not to sell its latest version of the Galaxy Tablet in Australia until litigation there is finished.

That’s 2 injunctions in Apple’s favor and at Samsung’s expense in the span of 9 days. Apple is currently seeking a similar injunction here in the US.