Samsung seems to be on a roll here and have managed to register another important win for themselves as an appeals court in the Netherlands yesterday ruled that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 does not infringe upon any of the design patents that Apple have filed for.
The decision was given by taking prior art (designs) into account which included the HP Compaq TC 1000 and the Knight-Ridder concept tablet which was first revealed in 1994.
Though Samsung and Apple have asked for further clarifications from the court in order to understand to what extent Apple’s design patent exist, beyond which Samsung is free to compete.
Apple has suffered another setback after Australia, where the courts have already ruled in favor of the Galaxy Tab paving the way for its sales in the market during the holiday season.
The Dutch courts had earlier passed an injunction wherein they had temporarily banned the sales of the Galaxy Tab in Netherlands until the matter was decided in the court.
The judgment passed by the Appeals court is significant for Samsung considering the fact that they are just a week away from another hearing in the Dusseldorf Higher Regional Court in Germany which would be ruling upon the preliminary injunction granted to Apple.
Samsung had already created a variant called the Galaxy Tab 10.1N in order to bypass the injunction and be able to sell its tablets in the German market.
Apple had effectively choked the sales of the Samsung tablets around the world based on the design patent infringement suits filed in countries like Australia, Germany, Netherlands, US, Japan etc.