Dutch court bans sale of Samsung mobile phones Galaxy

A Dutch court considered valid points of a complaint for patent infringement made by Apple and banned from Samsung subsidiaries registered in that country to sell Galaxy line of smartphones.

The ban, which comes into force in mid-October, applies only to the three subsidiaries that the Korean chaebol has in the Netherlands, but it can affect the entire distribution in Europe, as these three companies are used as focal point for operations in this market.

The court rejected several of the points made by Apple - which related to issues of patents and design of equipment - but why did the U.S. multinational in relation to a patent interface for viewing on mobile phones with touchscreen.

The patent expert Florian Mueller wrote in his blog that the ban will affect sales to all countries where the patent has been registered successfully, including UK, France, Germany, Ireland and Sweden, among others. Portugal is out of this list.

Samsung, however, says that the decision applies only to the Dutch market. "This decision should not affect sales in other European markets," the company said in a statement.

"Today's decision is an affirmation that the Galaxy product line is innovative and distinctive," also said Samsung, emphasizing that will use the week that lies ahead to prevent sales in the Netherlands are affected. "For the offense referred to only in the decision, we will take all possible measures, including legal action, to ensure that no gaps in the availability of mobile phones Galaxy to Dutch consumers."

The ruling does not apply to tablets of the brand, which had also been targeted in the complaint.

Apple has submitted a further complaint in Germany, where he claimed that Samsung's latest tablet (Galaxy Tab 10.1, which is already being marketed in several countries, including Portugal) mimicked the design of the iPad.

Initially, the German justice had determined that neither the Korean Samsung or its German subsidiary could sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Europe. But the court ended up saying he had no authority to so vast an injunction and prohibition was applied only to the German market. A new hearing is scheduled for this Thursday.

The Samsung devices in question use all the Android platform, developed by Google, but adapted by Samsung with some interface features themselves, a practice that is also carried out by other manufacturers.

Recently, Google announced an intention to buy Motorola (which must be approved by regulators, market) with an objective to be precisely to acquire the patent portfolio and protect Motorola's Android complaints of this kind.

Source publico.pt