Samsung Defeats Apple-Sought Ban in Australia

By Joe Schneider - Nov 30, 2011 11:32 AM GMT+0700

Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) won a battle in its global fight with Apple Inc. over patents, as an Australian court allowed customers to buy Samsung’s rival to the iPad 2 as early as Dec. 2, pending an appeal.

A federal appeals court ruled unanimously today that a lower court judge made a mistake in granting Apple’s request for a ban on the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Apple must file an emergency request with the country’s top court to extend the injunction past Dec. 2. The Australian dispute is part of a legal battle between the companies in at least four continents that began in April, when Cupertino, California-based Apple sued Samsung in the U.S. and accused it of “slavishly” copying the designs of iPhones and iPads.

“The ruling clearly affirms that Apple’s legal claims lack merit,” said Nam Ki Yung, a spokesman for Samsung. He added that the Suwon, South Korea-based company will make an announcement on the Galaxy’s availability in Australia “shortly.”

The High Court will decide whether to accept Apple’s request to delay the sale of Samsung’s tablet and then may hold a hearing or make a ruling based on written submissions from the two companies.

Apple said “it’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad.”

“This kind of blatant copying is wrong and, as we’ve said many times before, we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas,” the company said in an e-mail after today’s ruling.

Touch Screen

Apple had won an injunction Oct. 13 barring the sale of the Galaxy until the companies resolve a patent dispute at trial. Cupertino, California-based Apple claims Samsung’s tablet infringes at least two of its patents relating to the operation and interface of a touch screen.

The appeals court today criticized the lower court’s decision to grant the injunction, which cited Samsung’s refusal to accept an early trial on the patent claims.

“We cannot see how Samsung’s conduct in refusing the offer of an early trial could properly be weighed,” the three-judge appeal panel said in today’s decision. “We consider that her honor erred in principle by taking into account that irrelevant consideration.”

Available ‘Shortly’

Samsung had planned to scrap Australian sales of the newest Galaxy tablet if it couldn’t meet the Christmas shopping season because missing that would render the device “dead,” the company’s lawyer Neil Young said at an Oct. 4 hearing.

Samsung is the second-largest component supplier for Apple. The Korean company gets about 7.6 percent of its total revenue from selling memory chips, displays and other components for the iPhone and iPad, according to Bloomberg data.

Samsung then sued Apple in Australia, claiming that iPhones and the iPad 2 infringe its patents on wireless transmissions. Other court actions are ongoing Germany and Japan.

Bennett ordered Nov. 15 that a trial on Samsung’s claims be held in March, against objections from Apple, which had sought a later date.

The case is Samsung Electronics Co. v. Apple Inc. (AAPL) NSD1792/2011. Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia (Sydney).

To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Schneider in Sydney at jschneider5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net; Douglas Wong at dwong19@bloomberg.net