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 — to avoid future legal troubles. Apple disagreed that the Galaxy Tab 10.N met the requirements laid out by the court and quickly filed a new suit. With these latest developments, it appears Samsung will soon be able to return to business as usual in Germany.
[via BGR]

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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 in early March next year. It would be interesting to see how the new patent claims will develop, and what kind of repercussions there would be worldwide. Just recently, Samsung landed a left hook on Apple’s jaw by winning their suit in Australia as the court Down Under removed a ban on the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy tablet just earlier this month.

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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 legal team are starting to show: the sales injunction against Samsung in Australia was overturned, the company failed to secure an injunction against the same company in the US, and now Motorola’s found a weakness in their patent portfolio in Germany, where a sales ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is still in place. When Samsung introduced a revised Galaxy 10.1N model, specifically designed to avoid infringement on Apple’s patents, Apple promptly filed suit on the new version.
I’m a die-hard Android fanboy, but that doesn’t mean I want Germans, or anyone for that matter, to be denied the choice of Apple products. The worldwide patent wars are getting ridiculous – IPCom, considered a patent troll even by corporate standards, has won a preliminary injunction against HTC that could force the company to exit Germany completely. There’s clearly something rotten in Deutschland when it comes to the world of intellectual property, and in the end consumers get the raw deal. If anything positive comes out of all this, it’ll be that Apple begins to think twice about firing patent lawsuits from the hip. It’s likely that if they can’t get today’s German ruling overturned, the case will be settled with Apple licensing the relevant patent from Motorola for lots (and lots and lots) of money.
[via SlashGear]

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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 the fourth carrier to do so, behind O2, Orange and T-Mobile. In the UK you can now purchase the phone from all major carriers or “unlocked”.
Meanwhile in Google’s home country, Android fans continue to stew over Verizon’s total lack of communication concerning the first Ice Cream Sandwich phone. Though leaks and rumors are rampant (lately December 8th and 11th is favored) there’s still been no official word on a release or even a pre-order. Livid customers are beginning to flood Verizon with Twitter and Facebook messages, demanding a release and expressing their frustration every time the company sends out a marketing message. Observe:

If you’re sick of waiting, have about eight hundred dollars and want to use AT&T or T-Mobile, you could always order an import model from Expansys. Because at this point, Verizon clearly does not want your business.

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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 acquiring Bosch’s mobile patent portfolio, which counts amongst it over 160 collections of patents, including a patent that covers how a mobile phone first establishes a connection to a mobile network.
Earlier this week, HTC moved to warn investors that increased competition in the smartphone market and a hostile economic climate would affect revenues in the coming quarter, slashing estimates by as much as 23% as sales are seen to slow quarter-on-quarter for the first time in two years.
Strong sales from Apple and Samsung has led HTC to predict its fourth-quarter revenue will be the same as it was in 2010, reaching around $3.4 billion. It previously issued guidance that it would see sales upwards of $4 billion.
A ban on its 3G-enabled devices in Germany could see vital Christmas sales impact the company yet further, making it difficult for the smartphone maker to return to growth early next year.

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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 the moment and wait for some more solid info.
The Transformer Prime is the first tablet to feature Nvidia’s blazing 1.4Ghz quad-core Tegra 3 processor, and boy, does it show. Even so it’s a svelte 8.3mm while managing to cram in a 12-hour (quoted) battery life and either 32 or 64GB of on-board storage. Add the updated keyboard dock (which sadly won’t work with the original Transformer) and you can extend the battery to a full 18 hours while typing away. The Transformer Prime will launch with Honeycomb, but Asus has promised a quick upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich, possibly making the Prime the very first tablet to support thew new software officially.
[via Droid-Life]

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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 particular hatred for Samsung. But if the 10.1V successfully sidesteps Apple’s design patents, you can expect to see a similar model popping up in Australia soon, and perhaps even replacing the standard model worldwide to avoid future lawsuits.
That includes the United States, where Apple is currently suing Samsung over the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and other devices. Since the design looks like it’s got only a few minor changes, on the hardware side at least, it should be easy enough for Samsung to transition manufacturing for current and future models (assuming that it’s necessary). If Apple can raise any further objections, I’m sure we’ll hear about them in the coming months.
[via Engadget]

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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 was covered with a sheet recently due to the Apple injunction against the Tab 10.1 tablet. That is a signal that the legal war might spill over onto other products in the Samsung line.
Samsung has noted that the design of the Tab 7.7 isn’t finalized. It would seem that a redesign to change the style of the tablet is in order. So far, there have been no public comments from Samsung or Apple on the injunction being upheld. I am sure there will be more detail surfacing on this in the coming weeks.
[via SlashGear]

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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 issues a ruling on September 9, it could go either way. There is no indication of if the judge is leaning towards siding with Apple or with Samsung. Samsung could be forced to pay damages and licensing fees to Apple if it loses the court case in Germany. A loss could also open Samsung up to suits in other countries as well.
[via Reuters]

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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 an Android smartphone” sensors like compass and accelerometer.
Finally when it comes to the price, the Motorola DEFY+ will be sold for about 300 EUR unlocked. In other words, it will be available for free on contracts starting at 30 EUR per month or so.
[Via: GSMarena]

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