Australian court slaps temporary sale ban on Samsung Galaxy Tab
14 Oct 2011
An Australian court yesterday slapped a temporary ban on Samsung selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer in the country, in what analysts say is Apple's latest victory in its battle to stop the South Korean giant from abusing technical and design patents of its iPhone and iPad.
The temporary ban means that Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 will likely not be on Australian shelves during the upcoming holiday season.
While the Australian ruling may not hurt Samsung much since the country's market is not large, the outcome of a court case in California that is to be heard today will be important since the US is a big market for Samsung's Galaxy products.
If Samsung loses in California, it could kill the Galaxy tablet PC in global markets.
The Federal Court in Sydney pointed out that Apple has a case on least two of its patents and the ban will be in place until the same court rules on the core patents issue.
The two patents on which the court based its decision are not tablet-specific, but will affect all smartphones and tablets that run on Google's Android operating system.