Apple Scores European Union Wide Injunction Against Galaxy Tab 7.7 Sales

There seems to be no end of the legal battle between Apple and Samsung. CEOs of both companies have gotten together multiple times in order to sort out these issues, but to no avail. Both companies continue to sue and counter sue each other in different courts, in different countries. Apple has been lucky in courts up till now. The company has now scored an injunction against Galaxy Tab 7.7 sales in all of the European Union.

This is not the first time Apple has gone against a Galaxy tablet in court. The company has already successfully obtained injunctions against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the USA. In Germany Samsung was forced to make minor design changes to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 so that it could no longer be in breach of Apple patents. The device in question now retails in Germany under the Galaxy Tab 10.1N moniker. In Australia, Samsung lost out to Apple as well.

However last week it was Apple who failed to score a win in the UK. The court there ruled that Samsung Galaxy tablets were, to quote the court, not as cool as the iPad. The court was also of the view that Samsung’s tablets do not infringe on any of Apple’s patents. Apple was directed to issue advertisements containing statements that Samsung had not infringed on its patents. Surely Apple will go for an appeal against this decision, but it stands as a momentary victory for Samsung.

The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court has now ruled that Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 infringes certain Apple patents. It has therefore accepted Apple’s request for an injunction against this device. This particular injunction applies to all member states of the European Union. Surely Samsung is not happy about losing out on such an amazing potential market.

The fact remains though that Samsung’s Android powered tablets have not been able to make a mark for themselves in the global tablet market. The Amazon Kindle Fire which is not a full fledged Android tablet holds more than 50% of the total Android tablet market share. On the other hand, the new Google Nexus 7 tablet is doing superb in the market. Maybe it would be more logical for Apple to divert its resources in to developing a product that could stack up against these mid range Android tablets that are slowly but surely gaining considerable market share. Nevertheless it looks like Apple is in no mood to let Samsung off the hook easily.