Seven days after Apple managed to get Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 banned, the same German court has now lifted the pan-European ban today.
The court in Dusseldorf responsible for the European-wide ban last week has now backtracked after there were questions about its own authority and the evidence supplied by Apple.
The ban came as Apple looks to defend its intellectual property for what it perceives as a blatant copy of their iPad – in both design and look.
The Cupertino-based company managed to get the new tablet, which has been on sale in the UK for two weeks, banned across the entire European union – except for the Netherlands.
Today it emerged that Apple might have submitted evidence to the court that wasn’t accurate, it showed the aspect ratio of the Tab in the design drawingsto be closer to the iPad – when in fact it’s not the case. The iPad has an aspect ratio of 4:3, whereas the Galaxy Tab has a ratio of 16:10 widescreen, yet both tablets look identical in the submitted image by Apple. Were they bending the truth with a bit of Photoshop trickery?
Whether this is has been done on purpose or was a mistake remains to be seen.
Samsung has released a statement saying the injunction was completely unfair and they were not given adequate time to respond to the accusations.
The court at the centre of this injunction has yet to issue an official statement, but reports suggest that the injunction has been lifted following legal arguments to the court asking under what right it claimed to speak for the whole of Europe, rather than the region under which it resides.
So for now the ban has been lifted for the entirety of Europe, though the ban stays in place in Germany for the time being. However, it might be the case that the court may decide to re-issue the injunction again with help of a higher court.
The legal wranglings are sure to continue for many more months – where it will finishes it anybody’s guess – but this sort of tit-for-tat patent litigation isn’t helping anyone. So if you’re planning to get a Galaxy Tab we’d recommend buying one sooner rather than later.
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