A German court has sided with Apple to uphold a preliminary injunction of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, according to a report by the Associated Foreign Press (AFP).
While the court admitted some uncertainty as to whether it had jurisdiction over a Korean-based company to enforce the earlier EU-wide injunction, presiding Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hoffmann said she was confident in banning the device in Germany.
The ruling comes as part of an ongoing patent battle between Apple and Samsung. Back in April, Apple filed an initial suit, charging that Samsung’s Galaxy line of tablets and smartphones infringe on various design and UI aspects of Apple’s iPhone and iPad.
Brueckner-Hoffmann agrees, saying there is a “clear impression of similarity” between the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the iPad, according to the AFP.
Samsung has vowed to the appeal the ruling, saying in a statement that banning the sale of the Tab 10.1 “severely limits consumer choice in Germany.”
Last week Samsung was ordered to pull its latest Galaxy Tab model, the Galaxy Tab 7.7, from the IFA electronics show in Berlin following another ruling in a German court.
Apple currently has cases similar to the one in Germany pending here in the United States, Asia and Australia.
Global tablet shipments reached 15.1 million units in the second quarter of 2011, with Apple shipping a record 9.3 million iPads, accounting for 61 percent global tablet market share, according to Strategy Analytics. However, that number was down significantly from the second quarter of 2010, when Apple controlled 94 percent, a drop that Strategy Analytics attributes to a rising number of competing software platforms.
