Apple Wins Big: Judge Bans Sales of Samsung Tablet

Galaxy Tab 10.1 ruling marks Apple's 'greatest victory yet' in patent battle
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 27, 2012 7:21 AM CDT
Apple Wins Big: Judge Bans Sales of Samsung Tablet
In this Aug. 25, 2011 file photo a lawyer holds an Apple iPad and a Samsung Tablet-PC at a court in Duesseldorf, Germany.   (AP Photo/dapd, Sascha Schuermann, file)

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is such an iPad rip-off that it can no longer be sold in the US, a district court judge announced yesterday, issuing a preliminary injunction against the sale of Samsung's tablet. Samsung "does not have a right to compete unfairly by flooding the market with infringing products," Judge Lucy Koh wrote in her order—which, All Things Digital reports, was issued ahead of Friday's scheduled hearing, meaning she apparently thought Apple's case was so airtight that further arguments were unnecessary.

Apple based its case against Samsung on a single, five-page "design patent," which covers only the look of a product, Roger Parloff of Fortune explains. (The "utility patent," which relates to the way a product works, is the vastly more common type, he notes.) It shows sketches of what, "to the untrained eye, looks like an unopened TV dinner. … Your kid could have drawn these." Apple will have to put up a $2.6 million bond to cover Samsung if a court later reverses the injunction. The number is tellingly low, writes Sean Hollister of the Verge: The injunction doesn't cover the Galaxy Tab 2, and while the original Galaxy Tab 10.1 is still on sale, "it's already obsolete." But Samsung has nevertheless already filed notice that it will appeal. (More Apple stories.)

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