Australian Court Extends Galaxy Tab Ban Another Week

Following an Australian court ruling giving Samsung permission to start selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the country starting on Friday, Apple has managed to get that date pushed out to December 9. The extension was granted to give Apple time to mount an appeal in hopes of reinstating the preliminary injunction.

Samsung had planned to start selling its iPad competitor at 4PM Sydney time today, according to Bloomberg. The court overturned the preliminary injunction blocking Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales in the country earlier this week, giving Apple until today to file an appeal.

Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales delayed another week in Australia

Apple and Samsung have been locked in a legal battle over patent infringement claims for several months. Both companies have alleged that the other’s mobile devices use patented technologies without proper licensing, and have filed lawsuits against each other in the U.S. and other countries.

A German court has already issued an injunction blocking the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the country, and the company lost an appeal to overturning that ruling. Apple was also awarded a temporary injunction through a Dutch court blocking the sale of some Galaxy devices in the European Union.

Samsung has been working to block iPhone 4S sales in Australia, Japan, France, and Italy, but decided against seeking an injunction at home in South Korea. “We concluded that we should engage in legal battles with Apple only in the global market, but not in order to gain more market share in Korea,” a Samsung executive said.

This week’s Appeals Court ruling may put more of Apple’s case in in Australia in question, too. “The Full Court has interpreted a number of High Court decisions in reaching its conclusions,” said Mark Summerfield, a patent expert and senior associate at the Watermark legal firm. “Three out of four Federal Court judges who have looked at the case have found no prima facie case of infringement. The High Court would almost certainly not overturn this factual finding, so by any legal reasoning an injunction is not appropriate.”

Samsung is pushing to get the ban lifted so it can start selling its tablet for the holiday buying season. If the company can’t, however, it will most likely scrap its Australia launch plans completely.