Australia is a beachhead for Apple’s worldwide crusade against Android in general, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in particular. Apple’s lawyers scored a major victory earlier this year when a sales ban injunction was granted, essentially making Samsung’s tablet illegal to sell in the entire country. Naturally Samsung appealed the case, and at least one of the three appeals judges seems to be sympathetic, labeling Apple’s iPad market share as a monopoly.
Samsung’s lawyers take issue with the ruling granted by the judge in the original case, calling the decision grossly unjust, and accusing her of overlooking the core facts of Apple’s presented patents and business arguments.
If you have a fast moving product which if taken off the market, destroys the opportunities available to the newcomer and preserves the monopoly of the incumbent then you’d have to have a very close look at the strength of the case.
Another of the three judges took issue with Apple’s claims that a similar product would hurt its bottom line. He skeptically asked one of the lawyers if “the whole of Apple’s going to come tumbling down” because the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was allowed to be sold.
The developments are promising for Samsung, though they probably shouldn’t get too excited just yet – the civil case itself doesn’t begin until next year. Apple is unlikely to accept anything but a total sales ban, since they’ve already rejected Samsung’s settlement offer. If Apple manages to win the case, Samsung may simply release the slightly redesigned Galaxy Tab 10.1N, as they’ve already done in Germany.
[via SlashGear]
