Samsung won a big legal victory today in its continuing patent war against Apple. News.com reports that a court has overruled an earlier injunction that banned the sale of Samsung"s Galaxy tab 10.1 tablet through most of Europe. While an earlier court decision in Germany caused Samsung to halt sales of the tablet in most European countries, today"s new court decision said that the German court could only make the decision to ban the sale of the device inside Germany. This new development might only last a few days as both Apple and Samsung are scheduled to fight again in court on August 25.
Apple is still in a big legal fight with Samsung over patents that Apple claims Samsung has violated. Several months ago Apple accused Samsung of stealing the user interface and the design for its iPhone and iPad devices for use in Samsung"s own smartphones and tablets. In July a court in Australia agreed to Apple"s demand that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 tablet not be sold in that country.
While Apple"s iPad is by far the best selling tablet device worldwide the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been the most successful among Android-based tablets. There is still no word on whether or not Apple will attempt to bring the same kind of injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 to the US. The tablet started selling in US stores last June in 16 GB and 32 GB versions. More recently Verizon Wireless started selling versions of the tablet with its LTE-based 4G wireless service inside.