06 January, 2012
By Adnan
Apple and Samsung have been daggers drawn in court during the last year. Both corporations are fighting multiple lawsuits between each other in a number of countries. These lawsuits are basically based on infringement of patents. Samsung’s recent attempt to score one against Apple has been thwarted. An Italian court has denied Samsung an injunction that it was seeking against the sale of iPhone 4S in Italy.
This is actually the third time that Samsung’s request for an injunction has been disregarded. Samsung has previously tried twice in Europe alone and has failed to score an injunction. Italy just become the third country in Europe to not grant Samsung an injunction against iPhone 4S sales in its country. The first two requests were filed in France and Netherlands where they were categorically denied.
Apple on the other hand has had a pretty good track record with the courts against Samsung up till now. The fruit company has been able to score injunctions against Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 sale in Netherlands, Germany and Australia. It should be kept in mind that Samsung has not backed out from any lawsuit and all of them are currently being pursued which means that if these injunctions are later found as invalid, Apple could be slapped with million, maybe even billion dollar lawsuits demanding damages.
This whole debacle initially started out in April 2011. Apple has accused Samsung of copying various design elements of the iPhone when making its Android powered smartphones. Apple also accused Samsung of ripping off design elements of the iPad when making the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the company was able to prove this, partly because Samsung’s own lawyer could differentiate between an iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1, hence won injunctions against the sale of this tablet in four countries. Apart from design, the legal battle also covers a number of patent infringement issues, with Apple claiming that Samsung has infringed upon its patented multi-touch technology.
We know for sure that these lawsuits are not wrapping up any time soon. However it has been rumoured that Apple CEO Tim Cook can reach an out-of-court settlement with Samsung, under undisclosed terms, to end this whole debacle. It’s possible, because pursing active litigation in a number of countries isn’t exactly cheap and won’t solve the problem for quite some time.
