The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 could soon be unbanned in Australia, after judges voiced their concerns over an earlier ruling.
Apple won a temporary injunction in Oz back in October which banned Samsung from distributing the Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android tablet to retailers.
See, Apple reckons the Tab is too much like its own iPad 2 device, despite it having a different size, thickness, screen resolution, aspect ratio, internal components and operating system, and being built from different materials.
Samsung is thus disputing the injunction in front of the Australian legal system's version of the A-Team - Justice Foster, Justice Dowsett, and Justice Yates.
"We contend that the primary judge made a series of fundamental errors in her disposition of the interlocutory application. They were all errors of principle," said Samsung's lawyer to the A-Team.
"Her honour misunderstood and misapplied the basic requirements concerning interlocutory injunctions as laid down in [previous cases]," he went on, referring to the absent Justice Bennett, who had granted the injunction in the first place.
The A-Team then made noises indicating they may be on the verge of siding with Samsung and overturning the ban.
"If you have a fast moving product which if taken off the market, destroys the opportunities available to the newcomer and preserves the monopoly of the incumbent then you'd have to have a very close look at the strength of the case," the A-Team is reported to have said by the SMH.
The crux of Samsung's argument is that the judge in the original patent dispute, who granted the temporary injunction, applied the law without seeing the bigger picture. It would appear that the A-Team agrees with this view, and disputes Apple's frankly ludicrous claim that allowing the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to go on sale would unfairly harm its own interests.
It's all a bit tiresome, if you ask us, and a waste of money to boot – Aussie retailers are still managing to sell the Tab 10.1 by simply importing from overseas.
Via: SMH
