Apple officially moves to block the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in US

Just two days after it won a devastating preliminary injunction on the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the United States, based on a ruling that Samsung infringed on the design and patents of Apple’s iPad, Cupertino has posted the necessary $2.6 million bond, thus formalizing its blockage of U.S. imports of the infringing tablet…

The bond ensures that Samsung doesn’t suffer a business loss should it appeal the decision and the court finds the preliminary injunction improperly granted.

Of course Samsung filed a motion to stay the injunction pending its appeal and Apple won by a large margin, explains patent expert Florian Müeller who runs the FOSS Patents blog.

On this basis, the injunction has taken effect and Samsung must abide by it. Otherwise Apple could ask the court to sanction Samsung for contempt.

 

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh wrote in her ruling two days ago that “while Samsung will certainly suffer lost sales from the issuance of an injunction, the hardship to Apple of having to directly compete with Samsung’s infringing products outweighs Samsung’s harm in the light of the previous findings by the Court”.

The ruling does not affect the Galaxy Tab 2, a newer version of Samsung’s tablet which therefore remains on store shelves in the United States.

While this is an important victory for Apple, it won’t have a substantial impact on Samsung Mobile’s sales. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is already an outdated device, superseded by the Galaxy Tab 2 which sports a more pleasing design and souped up internals and seems to be lawsuit-free.

Samsung is going to take this ruling seriously, no question about it, and Apple faces a risk of finding itself on the receiving end once the next iPhone comes out.

Also, what goes around comes around.

Thoughts?