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Court bans sales of Samsung touch screen device in Germany

10 September 2011 01:22 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A German court in Dusseldorf meted out a verdict on Friday prohibiting the sales of Samsung’s tablet computer within Germany on charges that the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the south Korean Electronics touch-screen device, has breached the patent right entitled to the Apple Inc with iPad, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The injunction took place after Apple accused Samsung of replicating its best-selling smartphones and tablet computers devices. It is meant to enforce sales ban within Germany, stifling the much-anticipated rival products.

Samsung was forced to take its latest Galaxy Tab 7.7, billed by some as the "iPad killer", off the exhibition at the IFA 2011 consumer electronics show in Berlin several days ago, on charges from Apple for having "slavishly" copied the market-leading iPhone and iPad.

Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hoffmann cited "clear impression of similarity" between the Apple and the Samsung products," adding that their flat screens and rounded edges bear "minimalist, modern form."

The court injunction has barely narrowed the sales ban to Germany from previously-intended ban in the whole European Union. "It could only be competent to order a Europe-wide ban for a firm headquartered outside the European Union if this firm has a German subsidiary," said the judge.

A Samsung spokesman expressed disappointment with the court decision, saying it gruffly interferes with consumers’freedom of choice, and vowed further legal appeal to protect Samsung’s due intellectual property rights.

Since April 2011, the two companies have been embroiled in a number of patent-related lawsuits in many countries around the world.

Samsung has submitted counter-charge to the court on its home soil in Seoul over Apple’s copyright breaching for smartphone and tablet computer, appealing for a ban on the sales of Apple products in South Korea.

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, hailed by some in the IT sphere as an " iPad killer"", has posed great threat to the touch-screen gadget market dominated by Apple.