German Court Leans in Favor of Samsung in Case of Galaxy Tab 10.1N

Apple’s case against the revised Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N will likely not hold up, the judge reviewing the case has stated. In Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann’s opinion, changes made to the Galaxy Tab design appear sufficient to comply with a court order banning the sale of the original device. The statement is not a final ruling, though a verdict is expected to be handed down shortly. Judge Brueckner-Hofmann held trial in her Dusseldorf court in September, hearing Apple’s case that Samsung had copied their iPad design when creating the Galaxy Tab 10.1. An initial injunction banning the sale of the tablet was upheld, and Samsung released the Galaxy Tab 10.1N — a modified version of the tablet taking the court’s ruling into consideration...

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Samsung expands patent row with Apple in Germany

Samsung Electronics continued the patent dispute against Apple in Germany, filing new claims in the process. The South Korean consumer electronics behemoth has added a quartet of patents to its current infringement case that is related to the telecommunications standard technology WCDMA where 3G mobile handsets are concerned. The four new complaints will comprise of the use of emoticons, where according to Samsung’s spokesperson, “(Samsung) made four more claims; two are standard-related patents and the other two are utility patents. And a court said it would make these claims separate from the April lawsuit.” Last Friday, a regional German court in Mannheim did hold a hearing on the April case, touting that a ruling would be announced...

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Quid pro quo: Motorola granted injunction against Apple in Germany

There are all sorts of appropriately snarky comments one could place here. But we’ll stick to the facts, ma’am, just the facts: FOSS Patents reports that Motorola Mobility has been granted a preliminary sales injunction against Apple in Germany, based on one of its wireless communications patents. Unless Apple can get the ruling overturned or stayed, it may face a sales ban on the iPhone and iPad in that country. It isn’t overly likely that the ban will be put into place. For one, Motorola would need to post a 100 million Euro bond if it wants to hold up the sales injunction. Moreover, these decisions are often overturned on appeal, as we saw with Apple’s case against Samsung in Australia. But weaknesses in Apple’s historically crack...

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Galaxy Nexus arrives in Germany and on Vodafone UK, Verizon twiddles its thumbs

Good news, folks: there’s one more place you can get the Galaxy Nexus that isn’t America. Engadget reports that retailers across Germany have jumped the gun and started selling the Galaxy Nexus early. Availability is still a little shaky – it looks like some outlets are offering the unlocked GSM version and some aren’t, though Media Mart is reportedly a reliable place to find it. Prices vary from €529- €629 (about $713-$847), but it’s not clear if that’s simply retailer variation or a different price for the 16GB and 32GB models. None of the local carriers in Germany are offering subsidized versions, but if you live in the UK you’ve got an embarrassment of riches in that area. Vodafone is now offering the Galaxy Nexus on contract, being...

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Patent firm to ban the sale of HTC’s 3G smartphones in Germany

HTC’s smartphone woes look set to continue after it emerged that German patent firm IPCom announced plans to ban the sale and distribution of all of its 3G-enabled smartphones in Germany, Reuters reports. IPCom had won a previous ruling against the Taiwanese smartphone maker after it was found that it was infringing on the German company’s UMTS (a 3G cellular technology) patents. The company has also pursued Nokia in recent years. The company said in a statement: “IPCom now intends to execute this injunction in the shortest possible time,” the company said in a statement. “… we will use the right awarded by the courts, likely resulting in HTC devices disappearing from shops during the crucial Christmas season.”IPCom sued HTC after...

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Transformer Prime pre-orders go live in Germany

The tablet market is looking up for ze Germans. Just a day or so after the Apple-busting Samsung Galaxy 10.1V went on sale, German citizens can now order the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime. Technically the tablet isn’t even a pre-order, it’s labelled as”out of stock”, though the seller is Asus so we’re not looking at any third-party shenanigans. 599 Euros is a pretty steep price when you’ll be able to get the same device for $599 in the US, a converted difference of about $200. Officially the Transformer Prime won’t be available until December, a vague date that Asus hasn’t amended with regional specifics. Considering that there’s no new information on availability on the merchant page, I’d advise would-be importers to hold off for...

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Galaxy Tab 10.1N released in Germany, Samsung says “saugen sie es” to Apple

After winning an injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany over some extremely vague design patents, Apple was sitting high on the hog, keeping the South Korean company from selling tablets in the country. Months later Samsung has responded with the Galaxy Tab 10.1N, a redesigned model that presumably skirts Apple’s complaints to become legal in Deutschland. The new tablets will begin shipping in the next few days for €550, or about $743. It’s not immediately clear what Samsung has done to the original design to make it comply with the German court’s ruling, or if Apple is planning a rebuttal on the new model. The latter wouldn’t be at all surprising, given Steve Jobs’ vitriolic mandate against Android and the company’s...

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 injunction upheld in Germany

Samsung has been denied relief from the injunction that Apple won against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany. The courts in Düsseldorf presiding over the case upheld the injunction against Samsung and Netbook News reports that the judge in the case didn’t need much time to make the ruling. Apparently, the judge remarked that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 “smooth, simple surfaces” copied the minimalistic design of the iPad 2. The end result of the ruling is that Germans wanting the Galaxy Tab 10.1 still can’t get hands on one without importing. It’s worth noting that the initial ruling that banned the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in all of Europe is not in force. The Galaxy Tab 7.7 was pulled from display at IFA 2011 and the display for the tablet...

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Judge keeps Samsung tablet ban in place until September 9 in Germany

Apple has been hammering Samsung hard in Europe with allegations that Samsung has copied its products like the iPad and iPhone. Apple brought the case before the ITC and the ITC has banned the sale of some products across all of Europe. Popular devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S II are banned for instance. The Samsung Galaxy tablets are banned still in Germany.German courts have kept the ban on the sale of the tablets inside the country in place until at least September 9. That means that Samsung will miss showing its tablets off at IFA kicking off next week. Samsung had previously asked for a decision ahead of the IFA show. The judge has said that there were overarching similarities between the Galaxy Tab and the iPad.If the judge...

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Motorola DEFY+ rocks 1GHz processor, Gingerbread; Coming to Germany in September

It looks like Motorola still has plans for its rugged Android smartphone – Defy. Apparently the updated version of the device, dubbed DEFY+, will be released in Germany during the third week of September.The information comes from the German website mobiFlip.de, which says that the local branch of O2 will get to sell the Android-powered device. The same site mentions the specs – the DEFY+ will rock a faster processor (1GHz vs 800MHz found in the original Defy) and pre-installed Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread instead of Froyo. Aside from that, rest of the guts will remain the same and so will the design. In that sense, expect identical 5-megapixel camera on the back, HSPA and Wi-Fi connectivity, GPS, Bluetooth and an array of “standard for...

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