A Dutch court has granted a preliminary injunction, filed by Apple, which bans the sale of some Samsung smartphones in the European Union. While the injunction does not relate to the Galaxy Tab line of Samsung tablets, it does prevent the sale of the Galaxy S, Galaxy S II and Galaxy Ace Android devices. The decision was made after the hearing held on August 10 and 11.
As FOSS Patents points out, the injunction only applies to countries where one specific European software patent applies. It also does not restrict Samsung’s Korean parent company from distributing devices outside The Netherlands, however this will be difficult due to Samsung using the country as a hub for shipments to the rest of Europe.
The decision will come into effect in seven weeks; however Samsung will no doubt appeal this injunction. Also worthy of note is that FOSS Patents mentions that “at a first look it seems that the court has a skeptical perspective on a couple of the software patents asserted by Apple.”
This is the second preliminary injunction that has been granted in favour of Apple and against Samsung in the EU – the first being the ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 granted by a German court. Since then, the ban has been temporarily lifted as evidence has been reportedly falsified by Apple and Samsung has claimed that the iPad design could be derived from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
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