Edible Apple

A German court ruled last week issued an injunction preventing Samsung from selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 throughout all of Europe – except for the Netherlands. The rationale behind the decision wasn’t centered on a patent dispute, but rather on Apple’s claim that Samsung’s tablet design was too close to Apple’s iPad design.

On Tuesday, Samsung received a bit of good news as the injunction has been modified and now only applies to Galaxy Tab sales in Germany.

Now the suspension of the injunction is only temporary and may be re-enacted once a hearing on the matter concludes on August 25th.

Florian Mueller speculates that the lifting of the injunction is rooted in jurisdictional procedure to the extent that the German Court may have lacked the authority to prevent sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in countries across the whole of Europe.

Apart from the immediate commercial benefits that this provides to Samsung, it’s an unpleasant situation for Apple. Should the court really find that the Düsseldorf court didn’t have personal jurisdiction over a Korean company, this would reinforce a lot of people’s impression that Apple’s enforcement of design-related rights is, even though understandable to a certain degree, overreaching in some areas.

via FOSS Patents