Samsung Gets to Contest Apple's Australian Victory Early

Yet another episode has come to pass in the now infamous Apple-Samsung scuffle over the latter's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet, one that may bode well for Samsung in fact.

Samsung was able to gain a court approval, in Australia, for the acceleration of its appeal against the ban that Apple won against its tablet.

To put things in perspective, Apple was able to convince the Australian courts, a while ago, that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet infringed its intellectual property.

This effectively prevented Samsung from selling even one of those things there, the same way it was banned in Germany.

Apple came close to getting the tablet halted in the United States as well, but Samsung was able to bypass that, for now.

Either way, the company has definitely not been reaping the benefits it hoped for when it invented the tablet.

The fact that other slates, like the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer (already in the second version) have actually been selling well doesn't make things any easier on Samsung.

Now, it is reported that Samsung will be able to make its appeal in Australia earlier than customary.

If it succeeds in getting the injunction lifted, it will get to send the Tab 10.1 out in time for the winter holidays.

In the meantime, Apple is obviously doing all it can to prevent this from happening, since it wouldn't exactly fit in with its plans to allow an allegedly infringing product to benefit from the shopping season.

"I'm quite firm of the view that the matter should proceed on the basis that the lead application be referred to a full court, that it be listed at the same time as any prospective appeal and that the matter be expedited," Judge Lindsay Foster said.

Unfortunately, the actual date when the appeal will take place was not made public.