A U.S. District Judge held two black tablets above her head — one iPad and one Samsung Galaxy — and asked Samsung’s attorney if she could identify her client’s product. The lawyer was standing about ten feet away from Judge Lucy Koh in her San Jose courtroom. “Not at this distance, your honor,” she replied. Koh then asked if any of Samsung’s lawyers could identify the Galaxy 10.1, and one of them did so correctly.
This year the battle for control of the tablet and smartphone markets is just as fierce in the court system as it is in the marketplace. Judge Koh has yet to rule in the suit filed by Apple last April, which claims that Samsung copied Apple’s iPad and iPhone designs in creating the Samsung Galaxy tablets and phones. Judge Koh says that Samsung has infringed on Apple’s patents, but that Apple must still prove the validity of those patents. Samsung says that if it can raise substantial questions about the validity of Apple’s patents, it can win the case.
This summer Apple followed up its lawsuit with a specific request that the court ban Samsung from selling Galaxy products in the United States. Retailers who are counting on the Galaxy products for the upcoming holiday sales season are watching the case closely. Already this week, Australia put a temporary ban on the sale of the Galaxy 10.1, because of an Apple lawsuit claiming patent infringement. Germany has temporarily banned sales of the Galaxy 10.1 and the Netherlands has prohibited sales of Galaxy smartphones.
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Apple then filed a request in July to bar some Samsung products from U.S. sale, including the Galaxy S 4G smartphone and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.
Mobile providers Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA have opposed Apple’s request, arguing that a ban on Galaxy products would cut into holiday sales.