UPDATE: Apple has posted its $2.6 million bond.
Apple has won its appeal against Samsung in a US supreme court in the state of California (which, for those of you who don’t know, is where Apple is headquartered). This appeal was against Samsung’s Galaxy Tablet, which has been wrongfully infringing Apple’s property. This win, once Apple posts a $2.6 million bond (which for Apple is spare change), will ban Galaxy Tab sales in one of the biggest markets in the world, the United States, until Samsung can show the courts it has made the appropriate changes to its infringing devices. Apple has won other hearings in other countries, resulting in the same ban. Here is a statement from the judge making the decision.
“Although Samsung has a right to compete, it does not have a right to compete unfairly, by flooding the market with infringing products,” Koh wrote in her order, adding that the strength of Apple’s case on the merits left her no choice but to grant the injunction. “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 light of the previous findings by the Court.”
Apple and Samsung are both in a sticky situation. Samsung sells some of its hardware to Apple and of course Apple pays for it. They are both in a rough situation because Samsung has the right to refuse to sell to Apple since they don’t like how Apple is suing them all the time, but at the same token, Apple is one of Samsung’s biggest buyers, so it can’t without repercussions.
“Although Samsung has a right to compete, it does not have the right to compete unfairly”. That could not have been said well enough. They shouldn’t be infringing on Apple’s rights so I’m glad the courts saw that. I look forward to not seeing the Tabs at the store anymore. Here is a statement from Apple.
“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. This kind of blatant copying is wrong and, as we’ve said many times before, we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”
I also believe that it is not a coincidence. Samsung knowingly took Apple’s ideas and they are now finally paying for it.
Thanks for reading,
Joe