Edible Apple

Some breaking news this morning in the ongoing legal battle between Samsung and Apple abroad.

A few weeks ago, a German Court issued an injunction preventing the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Samsung smartphones from being sold throughout the EU. One week later, that injunction was temporarily lifted in every country, save for Germany, as the ruling raised questions as to the German Court’s jurisdictional power to prevent Samsung sales in other countries.

Now FOSS Patents is reporting that another determination on the matter has been issued by the Dutch Rechtbank’s-Gravenhage’s court and it ain’t looking to good for Samsung.

Beginning in mid-October, Samsung will be precluded from selling the Samsung Galaxy S, the Galaxy S II, and their lineup of Ace smartphones in the EU. Missing from the order, though, are Samsung’s Galaxy tablets.

As for what comprises “EU-wide”, Florian Mueller writes:

This relates to countries in which one particular European software patent (EP 2059868) is valid. (Formally it’s a “device” patent, but it doesn’t represent any innovation on the hardware side, so the nature of the invention is that of a software patent the way I define that term.) The status of that patent varies between various countries as this list shows.

Also of interest is that the order doesn’t apply to the parent company of Samsung, but rather to its three subsidiaries registered in the Netherlands.

However, it is my understanding that Samsung’s European logistics use the Netherlands as the primary hub. If Samsung’s Korean parent company wants to exercise its freedom to ship into other European countries despite this injunction, it will have to reorganize its logistics chain in Europe accordingly