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Australian Federal Court Ends Ban On Samsung Galaxy Tab Sales
New submitter Dedokta writes "The Australian Federal Court has overturned the injunction placed on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and ordered Apple to pay court costs. Apple has applied for an appeal with the Supreme Court, but Samsung is now free to sell the Galaxy Tab within Australia. Samsung is not off the hook yet, however; the full case to see if they have indeed infringed upon Apple patents is still to be heard early next year."
Good, step one for Apple to drop this frivolous lawsuit is complete.... Also, I find it interesting that in Australia, their supreme court takes cases like this. That could just be me being american though :/
good.
What the courts really need to do is charge the party bringing the suit for _all_ costs to the other party. Real money might discourage patent trolls like Apple.
Apple have sought leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia, Australia's highest court. So it's like the Supreme Court in the US - there are no appeals beyond that, and they get to pick and choose what cases they take, so there is little certainty Apple will get anywhere appealing now.
(The Supreme Court usage in the summary is misleading to Australians because Supreme Courts here are State-based courts.)
This is a good ruling I think. You could readily buy the 10.1 here online (ebay etc) and have it shipped to you - cheaper than you'd pay a local retailer too. If there is merit to Apple's case they'll be able to get damages down the line for the patent infringement.
--Q
Apple managed to get a stay in the lifting of the ban until 4pm Friday, to give them enough time to get an urgent High Court hearing, so the way isn't clear for Samsung just yet.
...we had consumer power, so we could avoid these companies that banter back and forth like shitty brats.
Thanks to the same lawyer armies, no competition has survived gestation.
When society collapses and we return to dirt living, I will vote against these scum by simply not sharing where I got my water. better start gettin outdoors now lawyer goons!
Except for the inevitable: win. The patent system, and to a lesser extent intellectual property as a whole, is causing severe problems in several industries worldwide. Technology it seems is suffering more than any other, and it's obvious why; with emerging markets such as smartphones and tablets there's everything to play for. Ecosystems haven't had time to settle down or seize the consumer yet, hardware is rapidly advancing and the field in general is in a state of flux. If you can gain dominance now and maintain it for as long as it takes for the market to settle down then you'll effectively monopolise it for the long-term, just as Microsoft managed with Windows and IE. The stakes are considerably higher too. Mobiles are growing so much faster than either the desktop or notebook markets and mobiles are so much more deeply ingrained into the average consumer's everyday life that quite frankly the potential for growth, both in profit and mindshare, is huge. With all this, it's scarcely surprising that companies are playing dirty. I only hope that this is the beginning of a backlash against Apple; when one company is a clear winner, that makes the consumer as much into the loser as any competitor.
The court also ruled that consumers are allowed to take a single bite into an apple so long as they bite from the bottom.
A few Aussie retailers have already started advertising the SGT for sale. Kogan for example is offering the SGT for A$50 or more cheaper then the equivalent Ipads (which Kogan also sell).
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
This is the same company that is charging an extra AU$80:00 toAU$120 per iPad just because the boat turns right and comes here to Australia rather than turning left and going to the USA.
da da da dum indeed.
The damage has already been done though. Who's going to want to buy a Galaxy Tab when they can get something newer and probably better? Unlike Apple that releases but one new tablet every year, there are dozens of Android manufacturers constantly putting out new products that trump what was available months ago. In this kind of environment, a delay of a few months is huge. Since the initial delay, both Amazon and Barnes & Noble have released new devices for cheap that undercut almost everything else and ASUS is about to release the Transformer Prime which dominates the Galaxy Tab on the high end. Sure Samsung won, but they still lost.
Quick update on this: http://www.news.com.au/technology/tablets/samsung-wins-australian-appeal-case-in-apple-tablet-war/story-fn6vigfp-1226210226842 They can't actually start selling yet, and apple are trying to overturn the overturned decision. And why would you get a Galaxy tab, especially now that the Transformer is out and about
Since this seems to be a recurring meme in all Apple-on-Samsung angst hereabouts, note that this does not apply in this case - the patents that Apple used to obtain the original ban were technology patents, not design patents. Most notably, one of them is a patent on capacitive multitouch.
Why does this type of sentiment exist? I don't mean specifically for Brand X or Brand Y, but in general? Shouldn't the sentiment be "I'm glad there are both Brand X and Brand Y, because there are indeed legitimate reasons to use either brand, not the least of which is simply personal preference"?
Consider this - while I prefer Coke, I'm glad there is Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, RC Cola, etc. because then everyone has a chance to drink the beverage they prefer. The only times I get really mad is when a restaurant has an exclusive contract with the beverage I least prefer (in this case I'm often better off to be honest, as I default to water).
"There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)