In a word…ouch…it appears that in the Apple against Samsung legal fight in Germany over the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 looking like the Apple iPad 2, the district court in Dusseldoft has come down of Apple’s side and handed Apple a win over Samsung with a permanent pad of the Samsung Android slate in Germany.
According to an article over on Computer World, a spokesman for the court has also said that “Samsung Germany may not sell the device in any other European Union country,” although apparently other Samsung divisions can do so.
Naturally old Sammy is to mount an appeal on the ruling, with a spokesperson commenting via email, “We are disappointed with this ruling and believe it severely limits consumer choice in Germany.”
Apple was originally granted an injunction against the selling of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany approximately one month ago, and Apple is seeking the same in the Netherlands and Australia, and recently also filed a complaint against Samsung smartphones in Japan.
The spokesperson for Samsung further said, “By imposing an injunction based on this very generic design right, this ruling restricts design innovation and progress in the industry.”
As for that Apple complaint in Japan, according to the article, the NTT DoCoMo CEO has stated that their launch next month of the Samsung Galaxy Tab “will not be affected by a patent-infringement lawsuit Apple has filed there against Samsung.”
Thus it seems that Apple has got its own way and those in Germany at least will not be able to purchase the Android 3.2 Honeycomb slate if they wish too, which basically means Apple is now telling people what devices they can and cannot buy.