Apple seeks U.S. ban on Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1; tablet could be pulled from stores next month

Apple recently won a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, finding that Apple's design-related patent on the Apple iPad is valid. That overturned the ruling made by a California court that prevented Apple from seeking an injunction against the Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1. With the ruling from the Appeals court in its pocket, late Friday Apple filed a motion seeking an injunction on the Samsung tablet which could result in the device getting pulled from stores as soon as next month.

FOSS Patent's Florian Mueller said that Apple's injunction motion has a great chance in succeeding considering that one Circuit Court Judge believes that a ban is warranted by the evidence presented by Apple and even issued a dissenting opinion saying that simply tossing the original verdict in the California was not enough relief for the Cupertino based manufacturer, and that Apple deserved more.This is the second time that Apple is seeking an injunction in the U.S. on the Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1. Judge Lucy Koh denied the first request along with a request to ban the Samsung Galaxy S 4G and the Samsung Infuse 4G, and now is being asked by Apple to make a ruling on the injunction without a hearing. Since the Judge already heard arguments about the same issue in October, this is not an unusual request. Considering that the CEO's of both Apple and Samsung (Tim Cook and Gee-Sung Choi, respectively) are expected to try to sit down and discuss a settlement on both May 21st and 22nd, Apple has given its rival and parts supplier until May 25th to respond to the motion.

If the CEO-level talks fail, the Korean based Samsung will most likely request a hearing on the injunction motion on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 which could take lace on June 7th when a separate injunction involving the Samsung GALAXY Nexus is to be heard. If Apple does win an injunction, it could lead to a redesign of the tablet. That is what Samsung did in Germany when an injunction was issued against the Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1 in the country which forced Samsung to re-issue the tablet as the Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1N. Considering that Samsung has already launched the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1), it might all be a moot point anyway.

source: FOSSPatents