Samsung wins legal battle in Australia, but fails to ban sales of iPhone 4S in France


Samsung Electronics will be rolling out its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia in time for the holiday season as its High Court rejected Apple’s request on Friday to extend the sales ban on Samsung’s tablet PCs.

The three-judge High Court panel said that Apple failed to convince them that the firm could win on appeal and denied the company a hearing, according to news reports.

Chief Justice Robert French, representing the panel, supported the decision reached earlier by the Federation Court to overturn the October decision to ban the sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the country.

The four-month long patent battle staged by rivals Apple and Samsung in Australia involves two user interface-related patents -- heuristics and multi-touch browsing.

“It was an obvious ruling. We will soon be selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia,” said a Samsung official. “However, we’re looking into filing a claim for damages caused by the temporary sales ban which forbid us from selling the gadget in the market for months.”

Samsung has been gaining momentum, winning its patent war against iPhone and iPad maker Apple in some countries, including the U.S.

Last week, the Suwon-based tech giant scored legal victory after a U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, rejected Apple’s bid to prevent sales of Samsung’s three Galaxy smartphones and the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Questioning the validity of Apple’s design patents, the court made note of pre-existing tablet PCs which also had similar designs to the iPad.

Judge Lucy Koh said in the ruling that it is not clear that an injunction on Samsung’s accused devices would block Apple from being “irreparably harmed.”

In the ongoing patent war, Apple has been accusing Samsung of “slavishly” ripping off its designs, while Samsung joined its move to launch suits against Apple on claims that the U.S. tech giant has used its patented communications technologies.

Samsung, however, was also met with bad news, failing to win on order from a Paris court to ban Apple from selling its newest smartphone iPhone 4S in France on Thursday.

The Paris court turned down Samsung’s request for an emergency order against Apple. Samsung is seeking to block the sales of Apple’s new handset in countries including France, Italy, the U.K and South Korea, arguing that Apple violated the firm’s wireless communications patents.

Judge Marie-Christine Courboulay said in the ruling that “the disproportionate character of the ban sought by Samsung against Apple is clear.”

Samsung was also ordered to pay Apple 100,000 euros ($134,100) for legal fees although it denied Apple’s request for damages.

With Samsung’s mobile chief Shin Jong-kyun stressing that the South Korean rival will continue to take firm counteractions, the two giants are engaged in about 30 patent battles in nine different countries.

By Cho Ji-hyun
(sharon@heraldcorp.com)