Spanish tablet firm defeats Apple's lawsuit

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Spanish tablet firm defeats Apple's lawsuit

After a year off the shelves following Apple's claims of patent infringement, tiny iPad challenger wins its case

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 3 November, 2011

READ MORE: Spain | Patents/IPR | Tablet

What the vast resources of Samsung have so far failed to do, a small Spanish firm has achieved - winning a legal case against Apple, which will allow it to sell a tablet which was accused of infringing iPad patents.

Apple has suffered its share of defeats during its recent litigation onslaught, with reversals at the hands of Nokia, HTC and others, but this is the first direct denial of an iPad-related claim. A year ago, the US firm obtained an injunction from a Spanish court to ban the import of the NT-K tablet into the country, a tactic it would then repeat in many jurisidictions against the Samsung Galaxy Tab. The NT-K is mainly manufactured in China and sold in Europe by Spanish firm Nuevas Tecnologias y Energias Catala.

The Spanish court has now removed the injunction, ruling that there are no legal grounds to stop the sale of the device, according to the smaller firm's head of sales, Leonardo Scanone. This may be just a little local defeat which will have no appreciable impact on the iPad, but it does highlight the controversial issue of companies obtaining long-lasting injunctions before any court ruling has been made on a patent claim. As a direct result of the conflict with Apple, the company sold fewer than 200 NT-K units this year, disastrously below its target of 15,000. It now plans to file a lawsuit asking for compensation from Apple for these losses.

Just as the NT-K's sales were disrupted for a year, even though it was finally exonerated, so Apple will hope to keep the Samsung product off the shelves for the important holiday season. Of course, if the Korean firm subsequently wins its case, it could sue Apple for damages, citing loss of sales, but many believe the real damage, in terms of maintaining iPad market share, would have already been done, and potentially be irreversible.

Australia is proving the testing ground for the Apple-Samsung tablet war, which is also raging in the US, Europe, Japan, Korea and elsewhere. Last week, Samsung called for the Australian courts to overturn an injunction banning on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in time for the holiday sales period, while the Korean company is also seeking an injunction against the new iPhone 4S. A German court has also imposed a ban on the 10.1. The two rivals have over 20 cases ongoing against one another in various jurisdictions.