‘David and Goliath’ rewritten by small Spanish tablet vendor

Nov 2, 2011 13:29 GMT  ·  By

A Spanish Android tablet vendor going by the name of NT-K has managed to win a lawsuit Apple had kickstarted last year attempting to shutter its business.

The Google-translated announcement says “Needless to clear all the damage it has caused this unjust accusation, both economically and emotionally to our company.”

“We are a small company like many others in these times of crisis we are trying to get ahead, and it seems grossly unfair that a company the caliber of Apple has to use its dominant influence. Parallel to this, start the corresponding civil suit against Apple for consequential damages, lost profits and moral damage.”

Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents couldn’t resist analyzing the matter, and concluded that “having a commercial dispute is one thing, but going down the criminal law avenue is totally unreasonable.”

Indeed, it appears that Apple acted a bit too swiftly in the case of NT-K. The victory of the Spanish vendor may also take its toll on Apple’s ongoing dispute with Samsung.

Muller, an intellectual property activist, remarked that, “What makes this is even more noteworthy is the fact that Apple asserted the same design-related right -- a so-called Community design -- with which it won two injunctions against Samsung in Germany (one related to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and another one related to the Galaxy Tab 7.7) but lost in the Netherlands (where an injunction was granted only against certain Samsung smartphones and based on a technical patent, not a design-related right).”

The Spanish company suggests that small electronics vendors usually get a similar treatment from Apple, in that they get dragged to court with brutal force and have to endure severe scrutiny.

However, NT-K refused to be bullied and went forth with defending itself. According to Foss Patents, there’s another company lined up to do the same - a German device maker called JAY-tech.