Earlier this month, Apple won an injunction against Samsung in Australia preventing the Korean-based manufacturer from marketing and selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the country.
The ruling, handed down by Justice Annabelle Bennet, follows Apple’s rejection of a Samsung settlement offer that would have allowed Samsung to sell its tablet in the country while presumably appeasing Apple by implementing certain tweaks to its Android OS.
Samsung has made no bones about the fact that it absolutely wants to get its Galaxy Tab 10.1 out in stores in time for the always profitable holiday shopping season. But with Apple’s injunction in full effect, Samsung is in a bind. Even more so because Apple has reportedly begun going after online sellers hawking the tablet, ignoring the injunction in the process. As a result, Apple has threatened legal action against a number of online companies who thus far aren’t inclined to bend to Apple’s will. The issue, though, isn’t black and white as some of these resellers are located abroad and are selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to customers in Australia.
In any event, Samsung isn’t sitting idly by twiddling its thumbs. Last week it filed a motion, which was subsequently accepted, to fast-track its appeals process.
Samsung sought and has been granted an expedited hearing by the Federal Court in Sydney, hoping to overturn the ban before the busy pre-Christmas shopping season.
“I’m quite firm of the view that the matter should proceed on the basis that the lead application be referred to a full court, that it be listed at the same time as any prospective appeal and that the matter be expedited,” Justice Lindsay Foster said.
Apple and Samsung remain entangled in complex litigation across the globe. Thus far, Apple, more so than Samsung, has been on the receiving end of more legal victories as it’s secured injunctions against Samsung in Australia, Germany, and the Netherlands.
Samsung, meanwhile, has filed a number of countersuits against Apple all of which have yielded nothing substantial to date. Part of the problem, for Samsung, is that the patents they accuse Apple of infringing upon belong to established technological standards. Consequently, Samsung is obligated to license these patents out to Apple – and any other company for that matter – on fair and non-discriminatory terms.
So in Italy, for example, Samsung’s recent motion to attain an injunction against the iPhone 4S failed because the court in Milan ruled that Samsung hasn’t yet demonstrated that it made a good faith effort to secure, and perhaps even offer, licensing terms to Apple that are fair and non-discriminatory.
Mon, Oct 31, 2011
Legal, News