14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 may have become the fastest selling tablet in the UK (after the Apple iPad 2) only a week after its launch, but its momentum has been cut short by a court ruling in Apple favor.
Some time ago, it was found out that the a certain 10.1-inch tablet had been blocked from Australia while some court charges are being analyzed.
More specifically, following an Apple lawsuit, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from Samsung was banned, though the latter company did later say otherwise.
Now, a new report has emerged, one that says the product has been halted again, though in a different, and larger, region.
The folks over at Telegraph are the ones who uncovered the new information, claiming that the Regional Court of Dusseldorf has ordered that all product sales be stopped in Europe.
Only the stage of a preliminary injunction against sale and marketing of the Tab was reached, but the judge, nonetheless, decided in favor of Apple, whose claim is that some elements of the iPad 2 were copied in the making of the device.
No doubt Samsung will appeal the ruling, but if it does, it will get a new hearing in about a month's time, during which the injunction will persist.
Obviously, this does not bode well for the company and it will be even more complicated if Apple succeeds in getting a favorable ruling in the US as well.
"It's no coincidence that Samsung's latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging,” said an Apple spokesperson.
“This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple's intellectual property when companies steal our ideas."
Whatever the ultimate decision of the courts turns out to be, Apple mostly succeeded in stiffling tablet competition on the short term.