By Joe Schneider - Sep 26, 2011 9:57 AM GMT+0700
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A model poses with Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy 10.1 tablet in Tokyo. Photographer: Haruyoshi Yamaguchi/Bloomberg
Samsung Electronics Co.’s newest tablet computer infringes at least three Apple Inc. (AAPL) patents and must be barred from sale in Australia because it would unfairly steal from iPad sales, an Apple lawyer said.
It must have been “as plain as the Opera House to Samsung” that the design of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringed Apple patents, Steven Burley, Apple’s lawyer, said at the start of a scheduled two-day hearing in Sydney today. “They ought to clear the way in advance rather than attempt to crash through.”
Apple is seeking Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett to prohibit the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy 10.1 tablets in Australia. The dispute is part of a global fight between the two companies that began in April in the U.S. after Cupertino, California- based Apple sued Samsung claiming the Galaxy products “slavishly” imitated the designs and technologies used in iPads and iPhones. Samsung struck back with lawsuits in South Korea, Japan and Germany.
Apple’s iPad may account for 73 percent of tablet computer sales this year, according to the research firm Gartner Inc. Products that run on Google Inc.’s Android operating system, including Samsung’s Galaxy tablets, will probably have about 17 percent of the market, Gartner said in a Sept. 22 note.
Samsung, based in Suwon, South Korea, agreed in August to delay a planned release of the Galaxy 10.1 tablets in Australia until Bennett rules on Apple’s request for an injunction barring the sale of the products.
Countersuing Apple
Samsung had altered its Galaxy 10.1 tablet from a U.S. version that Apple claimed infringed 10 of its patents, for release in Australia. The Australian version, although with “reduced functionality,” still infringes at least three patents, according Burley. David Catterns, a lawyer for Samsung, had denied the Australian tablet has reduced functionality.
Samsung countersued Apple on Sept. 17, saying the iPhone and iPad infringe seven of its patents related to wireless communications standards.
The agreement to halt advertising and the sale of the Galaxy 10.1 tablet doesn’t affect any other Samsung tablet or smartphone available in Australia, or other countries, the company said following the Aug. 2 hearing.
A German judge barred the sale of the Galaxy 10.1 tablets in that country on Sept. 9, pending a trial of Apple’s patent claims. Apple also won an injunction in Germany prohibiting the sale of the Galaxy Tab 7.7, which has a smaller screen than the 10.1 or the iPad. That forced Samsung to pull the product from the IFA consumer-electronics show in Berlin earlier this month.
The case is: Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. NSD1243/2011. Federal Court of Australia (Sydney).
To contact the reporters on this story: Joe Schneider in Sydney at jschneider5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Douglas Wong at dwong19@bloomberg.net; Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net
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