German court upholds ban on Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

Now a German court has ruled again on the ban of the original href=”http://galaxytab.samsungmobile.com/” rel=”homepage” target=”_blank” title=”Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1″>Galaxy Tab 10.1, and sales of the device will remain banned in Germany, although it is unlikely that Apple will be able to seek a similar ban in other countries based on the latest ruling, as Florian Muller from Foss Patentspoints out.

Apple can’t replicate the German decision in other countries since German unfair competition law is pretty unique. A win based on an EU-wide design right would have been strategically more valuable to Apple. Even though href=”http://www.samsung.com/” rel=”homepage” target=”_blank” title=”Samsung”>Samsung formally lost its appeal because the preliminary injunction remains in force, it succeeded in defeating href=”http://www.apple.com/” rel=”homepage” target=”_blank” title=”Apple”>Apple’s design right.

Last year, Apple won a temporary injunction barring the sale of Tab 10.1 in Germany by claiming that overall design of the tablet was too similar to href=”http://www.apple.com/ipad/” rel=”homepage” target=”_blank” title=”iPad”>iPad. Following which Samsung had appealed against the decision, on which Duesseldorf court decided yesterday.

Apple has also challenged the modified version of the tablet; a final ruling in that case is expected on Feb 9. Court has already rejected Apple’s claims in a preliminary ruling.