Samsung has won against Apple in a UK intellectual property case over the
design of the Galaxy Tab. Judge Colin Birss of the
High Court of Justice has ruled that consumers are unlikely to confuse the Galaxy Tab and the iPad, going so far as to call former "not as cool" as Apple's design.
In the ruling, Birss explains that Galaxy tablets "do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design." The Galaxy Tab has also been found to be thinner and have "unusual details" on the back, contributing to differences with the iPad. Apple has been given 21 days to appeal the decision.
The win may be seen as a breath of fresh air for Samsung, after having its attempt to lift an
injunction against US sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1
denied, and Apple being cleared of infringing a patent. A similar injunction against the
Galaxy Nexus has been temporarily suspended.
The UK legal system can have a reputation for finding companies innocent of infringement, with a court finding violations in only about 15 percent of all the cases it hears. In a recent battle between HTC and Apple,
three patents owned by Apple were deemed invalid and HTC was found not guilty of infringing on a fourth. [
via Bloomberg]
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