The Samsung Galaxy Nexus
A German court has not granted Apple a preliminary ban against the Samsung Galaxy 10.1N and Samsung Galaxy Nexus, a day after another German court upheld the ban against the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Bloomberg reports that the case revolved around a touchscreen patent, however, the Munich Regional Court said Samsung has proved that the patent will be revoked because of a technology that was already on the market before the IP was filed for protection.
Yesterday, a court in Dusseldorf upheld the ban of the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. The tablet in the Munich Regional Court case is centred on the Galaxy Tab 10.1N, an amended version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 designed to get around the ban. A lower Dusseldorf court is due to make a ruling over the Galaxy Tab 10.1N in a separate case which Apple filed.
It’s the latest move in Apple and Samsung’s ongoing legal disputes over smartphone and tablet patents, which have spanned across the globe in regions such as the US, Europe, Japan and Australia.
The European Commission recently launched an investigation into whether Samsung abused commonly available patents on smartphones to attack Apple in these disputes. It alleges that Samsung contravened a commitment it gave to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute and used standard essential patent rights to distort competition in European device markets.
