Apple has won the right to ban the sale of all Samsung Galaxy tablets in the United States of America. The injunction is directed against the Galaxy Tab 10.1, which was slated by many to be the leading challenger to the iPad.
According to Reuters, Apple is claiming that Samsung stole its intellectual property, and is infringing upon the iPad patents with the Galaxy Tab 10.1. In April 2011, Apple first filed a lawsuit claiming that Samsung copied the “look and feel” of the iPad.
The ruling was handed down yesterday, and will take effect once Apple has posted a $2.6 million bond as protection and compensation for Samsung in case the injunction is later deemed unnecessary.
Apple also filed an injunction against the Samsung Galaxy SIII, but the U.S. court dismissed it as overkill. However, regarding the Galaxy tablet, Judge Lucy Koh, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, said that Samsung would be “flooding the market with infringing products” if the sale of the Galaxy tablet is allowed, and that it “does not have a right to compete unfairly”.
An Apple spokesperson added: “this kind of blatant copying is wrong and, as we’ve said many times before, we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”
The ban does not apply to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 II, the tablet’s latest model.
The case will go to trial on 30th July, 2012.