Samsung and Apple have been fighting for almost six months now, to target each other with patent rockets. The year is coming to an end and it seems the almighty has endowed his blessings on both these companies equally. In Australia, Samsung was all smiles, while France saw Apple giggling its victory.
Talking about Samsung’s success first, this is definitely a big victory for the Korean Electronic Giant, as the Australian court has lifted a sales ban on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, allowing the highly anticipated tablet to be sold in the region. Hopefully we can say, FINALLY we have a decision coming, as here we have seen many decisions switching over again and again.
The lifting of the ban will see Samsung rejoicing, as it has got the much-required green light to push the highly anticipated tablet out onto the market. Just in time for Christmas. If they would have lost this opportunity, Apple would have geared away to success, without any real challenge. Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is one competitor, which has the potential to give Apple’s iPad a run for its money. So, Apple would not really be happy with the decision.
Samsung, on its part said that it was “pleased” with the judgment.
Noting the case’s decision, it was noted that Australia’s High Court refused Apple’s application for special leave to appeal in the ongoing patent dispute on Friday. They are fighting over the same issue in more that 10 countries, with almost 30 cases wasting space for just one issue.
But Apple failing to convince the judge, had the case back firing on them. The High Court not only ruled that there would be little chance of the case succeeding, but it even ordered the Cupertino-based giant to pay legal costs for Samsung’s case. However, the details of the latter are yet to be finalized.
A similar decision was seen in France, but with the respective parties switching their seats. Samsung had filed a case against Apple, to impose a ban on the sales of its iPhone 4S in France. However, the French court threw out the application, which Samsung claimed infringed its patented mobile communication technology. The court noted that the case had no strong platform to build on.
The case saw the court stating that there was no real need to ban the sales of iPhone 4S, as Samsung is not suffering from any irrecoverable damage id the phone is sold. Citing the same as a “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” or FRAND rule, which Apple has successfully used several times to counter Samsung’s accusations.
To those who don’t know about the FRAND rule, it says a company can use core technology if it is essential for a product to work so long as it pays reasonable royalties. In reality that means a company can make the product first and pay later.
However, with almost 30 cases filed by Apple and Samsung collectively, against each other, Samsung has now won two injunctions, but have lost five. This would mean that Samsung still faces an uphill battle in similar suits against Apple in Italy, Australia and Japan.
So it seems all’s well that is almost ending well, or is there still some twists and turns left in this particular case, we will have to wait and watch.