Going dutch
The attritional patent battle between Apple and Samsung over mobile devices took another turn in Apple's favour today, with the announcement by a Dutch court that it had granted a preliminary injunction requested by Apple against the Samsung Galaxy S, S II and Ace.
As ever the news was brought to our attention by tech patent blog FOSS Patents. The injunction covers a software patent concerned with photo management on a mobile device and, apart from Holland, only affects those countries in which Apple completed local registration of the patent. They include: Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.
But Apple presumably targeted Holland because it knew that's where Samsung's European logistics hub is, so even Samsung seems to be hamstrung across the whole of Europe regardless.
But FOSS Patents reckons Samsung should be able to minimise the damage this decision causes, because it has seven weeks until the decision is enforced. Given that this is a software patent, it has a fighting chance of ensuring all affected phones distributed after that date don't infringe on this patent.
On the flip side this decision is viewed as a ‘severe blow' for Android, as the patent most likely comes from that platform, and Samsung is just the Android OEM Apple has chosen to focus on. If that is the case, Google and the other OEMs will presumably have to work around that patent or license it from Apple.
Then again, everyone could just chill out and get on with making great devices - and lots of money - without having to get in each other's faces the whole time. Like that's going to happen. Here's the court document for our Dutch-speaking readers.
KG 11-0730 en 11-731 Apple - Samsung
