Last week, Samsung proposed a deal to Apple behind closed doors in an attempt to find a way to launch its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia. Samsung has delayed the device's introduction there for two months while a court has heard Apple's case for a preliminary injunction to bar Samsung from the selling the device due to infringement of Apple's intellectual property rights.
Reuters reported late yesterday that Apple has rejected the deal, pressing forward with its position that Samsung should be barred from selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia.
"[The proposed deal] is one we don't accept and there is no surprise. The main reason we are here is to prevent the launch (of the Galaxy 10.1) and maintain the status quo," Apple lawyer Steven Burley told the court.
Samsung has been forced to delay the launch of its new Galaxy in Australia until after the court makes a ruling.
"It is not going to be achievable your honour, given the positions advanced by each party," a Samsung lawyer told the court when asked about the prospects of a settlement.
Bloomberg follows up with a new report today noting that the federal judge in the case has yet to issue a ruling on Apple's request for a temporary injunction as the hearing comes to a close, reporting that she will need a "little" time to reach a decision.
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For its part, Samsung has noted that if it can not win clearance to launch the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia within the next two weeks it may simply scrap the launch altogether.
Samsung is willing to abandon plans to launch the product because missing the Christmas season would result in the new tablet being “dead,” Neil Young, a lawyer representing the Suwon, South Korea-based company, told Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett in Sydney today.
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“We’re willing to pull out all the stops to get it out by mid-October,” Young said. “We’re absolutely desperate.”
Apple and Samsung have been locked in a patent dispute ranging across a number of countries. Apple has had its most success in Australia and Germany, where it has been able to delay the launch of Samsung's products as the legal proceedings play out.
Top Rated Comments
Don't be silly. If that were the case, Apple would have sued basically everyone who makes a tablet.
The issue is that...
- The TouchWiz skin has icons and design embellishments that were intentionally made to resemble the appearance of iOS. Most notably in the application tray.
- Their chargers, cables and certain other accessories were clearly designed to look like those used by Apple products (although in black, not white, because colour totally changes everything).
- The fascia of the device was designed to resemble the iPad as closely as possible (and it is more than just "it's a rectangle" - I have owned many televisions that are essentially rectangles, but their fascias were distinct).
- Their packaging and marketing materials were designed to ape those of the iPad so the devices appear similar side by side on store shelves.
Also at play is the fact Samsung's TouchWiz and other Android enhancements feature patented software solutions to problems including, but not limited to, correcting accidentally touches. While we can argue that such things should not be patentable, they presently are and so Apple are entitled to pursue infringements.
We can all have our opinions on how the law is broken and how stupid the legal action might be, but Apple are not operating illegally, and the justice system clearly agrees with them on many of their points if they are granting injunctions.
Apple haven't killed it, local law has done that since Samsung has breached such law and been found guilty of doing such.
While it may hamper consumer choice, the same could be said as any counterfeit goods.
Its good for consumers. Maybe companies will think twice now before just copy & pasting Apple products and actually innovate or a least come with original ideas.
So if you worked you arse off on a great selling product, and another person ripped you off in terms of design of the tablet, cable, charger, and OS, and caused a loss of income, would you simply worked your arse off more, to create another better device or sue for violating your patents, and simply complying you?:rolleyes:
I think everyone would agree that multiple copycat companies ripping off products from a single company is bad for consumers.