Samsung and Apple have been doing a little kangaroo boxing in Australian courts these past few months, and Wednesday Samsung landed a haymaker when an appeals court overturned a ban on sales of their newest Galaxy tablet.
The rivals first met in an Australian court on Aug. 1, when Apple sued Samsung for patent infringement, alleging the Galaxy Tab 10.1’s design was modeled after the iPad. Despite Samsung’s most imaginative legal arguments, which include a reference to a 2001: A Space Odyssey scene featuring a tablet computer that looks an awful lot like Steve Jobs’ brainchild, a lower court granted Apple an injunction against Samsung in October, banning sales of the tablet.
All three members of an appeal panel agreed yesterday that the lower court’s decision was a mistake. A federal judge overseeing the panel ruled that as of Dec. 2, Samsung may begin selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, just in time for the holiday-season rush.
Apple and Samsung are currently duking it out in a series of litigation bouts spanning four continents. Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, hopes the blow they landed yesterday will be the first in a combination punch that reaches Europe, where a German court granted an injunction in August banning sales of their tablet in most of the European Union.
But, as one analyst told Bloomberg Businessweek, “Samsung is not out of the Australian scrub yet.” Because the judge delayed lifting the injunction until tomorrow, Apple has time to file an emergency appeal with the High Court in Canberra, Australia’s supreme court. If they extend the injunction by the end of business on Friday, Apple will have 27 days to file an appeal against yesterday’s ruling.
Samsung, in the meantime, is rushing to prepare for holiday sales two months after the company’s lawyer Neil Young said his client would cancel sales of the new Galaxy tablet in Australia if they missed the December shopping season. As Reuters points out, the Australian market won’t make or break Samsung’s tablet sales, but if they are allowed to continue selling their product in the Outback, they will have the opportunity to compete in one of Apple’s primary iPad launch markets.
The litigation battles between the smart device heavyweights will continue in ten countries and they're not all one-sided. Samsung is currently pushing for injunctions against the iPhone 4S in four countries, including Australia. And Apple, of course, is also dealing with that whole Amazon Fire nuisance right now too.
One thing’s for sure — the intellectual property lawyers for these companies won’t be hurting for work anytime soon.
Image: Flickr/renee wang1
