Apple lawsuit forces Samsung to take sample off show
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Xinhua, September 5, 2011
South Korea's Samsung Electronics confirmed Monday its new Galaxy Tab 7.7 had been taken off the showcase shortly after its striking launch at the ongoing IFA 2011 consumer electronics show in Berlin.
Samsung Electronics erased all traces of the Galaxy Tab 7.7 from its exhibition stand at IFA, obviously as an injunction from the intellectual right protection lawsuit from Apple, the U.S. giant in mobile telecommunication, start to take effect in Germany.
"Samsung has removed the Galaxy Tab 7.7 from our stand at IFA. We cannot make any further comment as we have not received an official statement from the court," a spokesman for Samsung said.
A local court in Dusseldorf on September 2 granted Apple's request to add the Galaxy Tab 7.7 to the list of banned Samsung devices in Germany, after Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 was forbidden in German Market on an interim ban earlier in late August. As a result, Samsung is not allowed to sell or market the Galaxy Tab 7.7 in that country.
Apple wants a ban on the selling and marketing of Samsung smartphones and tablet PCs, accusing it of copying Apple's market-leading iPhone and iPad, as the appearance of the larger Galaxy Tab is too similar to that of its iPad 2, the design of which is registered with the European Union's Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market.
Samsung has been entangled in a series of patent litigations as it tempts to challenge Apple's dominance in the world's mobile phone market, on charges of infringement from common designs to core technologies in smartphone and tablet computers.
As a counterattack, Samsung also sued Apple had infringed its wireless technologies, while vowed its commercial legality in the European market, countering the German local court's injunction as "severely limits consumer choice in Germany."
European intellectual property laws allow companies to protect the appearance of their products, in addition to the copyright, patent and trademark rights.
On Aug. 24, a Dutch court banned imports of three Samsung smartphones after finding that they breached an Apple patent, while in Australia Samsung has postponed the launch of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 pending the outcome of a lawsuit Apple filed with the Federal Court of Australia.
Since Samsung launched the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the older brother of the Galaxy Tab 7.7, in June, 2010, the Korean electronics giant has grabbed 20 percent of the tablet market, posing the biggest ever threat to Apple's dominance in this field.
