One of the many lawsuits initiated by Apple has ended. The California state court ruled to temporarily suspend the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the United States.
Judge for the Northern District of California, Lucy Koch, found it reasonable and fair to ask Apple to ban the sale of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets that infringe the iPad and iPad 2 design patent. will not outweigh the damage to Apple from competing with counterfeit Samsung products,”Koch concluded. The court also considered Samsung's argument that the ban on the sale of tablets could negatively affect the company's business cooperation with the mobile operators that are involved in the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1. According to the judge, this argument cannot be taken into account when making a decision, since such cooperation is based on counterfeit products.
For this ban to take effect, Apple needs to make a deposit of $ 2.6 million. The deposit will have to cover the costs in the event that the court's decision is later overturned.
The American company Apple and the South Korean electronics manufacturer Samsung have been fighting a patent war since spring 2011. Then Apple accused Samsung of illegally copying technology and design of the iPhone and iPad. Samsung has filed a counterclaim, also accusing Apple of illegal use of certain technologies. Thus, in less than a year, both companies had more than 30 lawsuits in several countries.
Now Samsung is striving to take the leading position in the market, which is still held by its main competitor - Apple. The South Korean company has already become the largest smartphone manufacturer with 31% of the market, while Apple products have 24% of the market. Tablets make up only a small fraction of Samsung's business. For comparison, in the first half of the year the company sold about 2 million tablets and about 140 million mobile devices.
