Some breaking news out of California that will make Samsung very upset. In a surprising ruling from United States District Judge Lucy H. Koh that came down today, Apple has won an injunction against Samsung selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the United States. According to a copy of the actual court decision, “Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd… are enjoined from making,using, offering to sell, or selling within the United States, or importing into the United States,Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer, and any product that is no more than colorably different from this specified product and embodies any design contained in U.S. Design Patent No. D504,889“.
This is quite a shocking development considering that Apple was denied an injunction against Samsung twice in the past six months, including once by Judge Koh herself. Nevertheless, Apple has won this round in their incessant patent wars with Samsung (among other companies) – and for the first time, Apple has Samsung on the ropes. While Apple has had success in bringing injunctions against Samsung in others countries, such as Australia, this is the first time Apple has been able to similarly ban sales of infringing products in the U.S., though Samsung is not going down without a fight.
“Apple sought a preliminary injunction of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, based on a single design patent that addressed just one aspect of the product’s overall design,” Samsung said in a statement. “Should Apple continue to make legal claims based on such a generic design patent, design innovation and progress in the industry could be restricted.”
It is important to note that this injunction only covers the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and not Samsung’s newest version, the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. However, considering Apple’s well known love for law suits, we can probably expect a future court battle over that device as well.
