By Joe Schneider - Dec 9, 2011 9:35 AM GMT+0700
Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc., the world’s largest technology company, failed to get a ban on Samsung Electronics Co.’s iPad 2 rival extended in Australia, enabling the South Korean manufacturer to start selling the tablet immediately. Joe Schneider reports from Sydney on Bloomberg Television's "On the Move Asia" with John Dawson. (Source: Bloomberg)
Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) can get its rival to Apple Inc.’s iPad 2 on Australian store shelves before Christmas after the country’s highest court denied the U.S. company’s bid to maintain a ban on Samsung Galaxy tablets.
Chief Justice Robert French, on behalf of the three-judge High Court panel, said today that Apple failed to persuade them that it could win on appeal and denied the company a hearing. He reinstated an appeal court judgment lifting the ban on the Galaxy 10.1 tablets in Australia.
The ruling ends Apple’s four-month effort to keep the iPad’s biggest rival out of Australia on claims it infringes patents related to touch-screen technology. Apple and Samsung, the world’s biggest makers of smartphones and tablet computers, have sued each other on four continents since the Cupertino, California-based company accused the South Korean electronics maker in April of “slavishly copying” its products.
“Apple and Samsung are fighting under different circumstances in so many different countries,” said James Song, a Seoul-based analyst at Daewoo Securities Co. in Seoul. “With Samsung beginning to win some cases, the two companies may be getting closer to a settlement.”
Samsung shares erased declines after the verdict, trading down 0.7 percent to 1.06 million won at 10:56 a.m. in Seoul, after having declined as much as 2.5 percent earlier in the day. Apple, the world’s most valued technology company, gained 0.4 percent to $390.66 yesterday.
Paris, U.S.
Apple and Samsung have filed at least 30 lawsuits against each other, according to the Suwon, South Korea-based company.
Yesterday, Samsung failed to win an order from a Paris court to block Apple from selling its newest smartphone iPhone 4S in France. The maker of iMac computers also said it will appeal a U.S. judge’s refusal to block Samsung’s 4G smartphone and Galaxy Tab 10.1 computer.
In Sydney, Apple’s lawyer, Stephen Burley, argued today that the appeal court made a mistake in overturning the ban and that Samsung will “visit harm on Apple” by selling the device.
Extending the ban in Australia “would effectively determine the outcome” of a trial over the patents because by the time that’s concluded the Galaxy 10.1 will be obsolete, French said.
Samsung’s lawyer, Katrina Howard, said it was “critical” for the company to start sales before Christmas, an argument the high court judges agreed with. The company is “pleased” with the order, Samsung said in an e-mailed statement after the verdict.
Steve Park, an Apple spokesman in Seoul, repeated the company’s statement on the dispute that “blatant copying is wrong and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”
Samsung said it will sell a 16GB, Wi-Fi model in Australia for A$579 ($590) and a 16GB, 3G model for A$729.
Samsung is the second-largest component supplier for Apple. The Suwon, South Korea-based 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.
The case is: Apple Inc. (AAPL) v. Samsung Electronics Co. NSD1243/2011. 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: Douglas Wong at dwong19@bloomberg.net; Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net
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