Apple has won what appears to be a major victory against its biggest mobile device competitor, Samsung – in the German courts.
First reported by the German news agency - dpa - but soon picked up by tech patent expert and German native Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents, the news concerns the granting of a preliminary injunction against Samsung concerning its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.
The injunction was granted to Apple after an alleged infringement of one of its European Community Designs concerning the iPad. This is part of a larger global action being taken by Apple against Samsung alleging the latter copied Apple designs in a number of its mobile handheld devices.
A preliminary injunction bans the distribution of the products in question in anticipation of a permanent injunction being granted at the conclusion of the legal process. This action concerns intellectual property, rather than patents, and as a result is enforceable across the whole EU (except Holland, where a separate action is underway). In short, Samsung is now banned from distributing the Galaxy Tab 10.1 across Europe.
