Last week, Apple managed to block sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet in Europe, and the sketches above were one of the reasons cited by the company in the German court that issued the decision to ban sales. These sketches were published by Apple in 2004 and they were corroborated with some patents but also some online surveys through which Apple tried to prove that the public's perception of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is that the tablet would be a more or less faithful copy of the iPad/iPad 2.
In order to allow for an orderly proceeding, Apple and its Affiliates and Samsung Korea and its Affiliates agree that they will not file or seek ex parte or inter partes actions in the Netherlands against any of the others' products or entities until the decision is issued by the Court in the Apple v. Samsung preliminary injunction action in the Netherlands, which is expected to be issued by Judge Brinkmann on September 15, 2011. This stipulation shall be without prejudice to any party with respect to any claim of urgency for any action taken after September 15th for the time period during which this stipulation is effective
In Germany, Apple managed to convince the court, but in the Netherlands, things are completely different because a judge decided that online surveys are not a strong enough evidence to support Apple's claims, so everything will be judged only on the basis of patents invention. Those from Samsung accused Apple of trying to stop the launch of products that have in common with iDevices only the thickness, and if we are to take the statements of those from Apple, then a very wide range of products available on the market violate patents of the company.
To support its case, Samsung brought into discussion the design of no less than 20 smartphones launched on the market in recent years, but also a video clip from 1994 in which a tablet specially designed for reading newspapers is presented. Those from Samsung are trying to prove that the ideas from Apple are not new, they have been applied by many manufacturers and now the company's claims should be rejected because Samsung has not infringed any of Apple's patents through the products launched on the market.
Although the lawsuits in Europe are far from finished, those from Samsung have others directly in South Korea where they demonstrated in front of a court that the square design of the iPhone terminals has existed for a long time and the LG Prada was given as an example. The legal battles between the 2 companies continue, but for now Apple seems to have the advantage.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBEtPQDQNcI[/youtube]
