Germany may have banned the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 over Apple’s patent infringement claims, but it doesn’t seem likely the court will do the same for the modified version of the tablet, the Galaxy Tab 10.1N.
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1N probably won’t get banned in Germany
The court approved Apple’s request for an injunction back in September to block sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the country, forcing Samsung to modify its iPad-like tablet to work around the patents in question. The changes Samsung made, including adding an “N” to the end of the product name, look to be enough to avoid a new product sales ban, according to Bloomberg.
Other changes include a wider bezel, and a large Samsung logo on the front of the device.
“Consumers are well aware that there is an original and that competitors try to use similar designs, so buyers are vigilant when looking at products,” Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann said. “We don’t think that someone buys a Samsung [tablet] to make his table neighbor at the coffee house believe he owns an iPad.”
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.
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.
The changes to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet aren’t enough to make Apple happy, and the iPad maker still thinks Samsung’s device is too close to its own.
“That’s the typical strategy: You try to come as close as possible to the original and if you can no longer do it you introduce marginal changes,” said Apple lawyer Matthias Koch. “Even the packaging is one-to-one like that of the iPad.”