Judge bans old Samsung Galaxy tablet in US

An American judge has banned the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the United States at the request of Apple. The Tab 10.1 would be too similar to Apple’s iPad and iPad 2. The tablet was hardly sold anymore.

The ban extends to “any product that differs in no more than in color” from the Galaxy Tab 10.1, but presumably not to newer tablets from Samsung, such as the Galaxy Tab 2, Galaxy Tab 7.7 and the Galaxy Note. 10.1, which should be out soon. That can be deduced from the verdict of a judge in the American district of San Jose.

The judge pronounced the ban because the Galaxy Tab 10.1 would be virtually indistinguishable from the iPad and iPad 2. The judge came to that conclusion in December, but the ban has only now been pronounced; in December, the court found that there was prior art for the design of the iPad and that Apple therefore copied its design from previous devices. Now the judge no longer seems convinced. The ban appears to apply only to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and is based on just one of Apple’s proposed patents.

It concerns a provisional provision; the trial has yet to take place. However, based on current arguments, the court believes that Apple will win. Samsung has filed an appeal, reports All Things Digital.

For consumers, the ban does not mean much; the Android tablet Galaxy Tab 10.1, came out last summer and has since been followed by new models, such as the slightly modified Galaxy Tab 10.1N, the successor Galaxy Tab 2 and variants such as the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 7.7. The Galaxy Note 10.1 will probably be added soon.

Samsung and Apple have been fighting over patents in dozens of countries for just over a year. For example, Apple sued Samsung for similarities between the iPhone 3GS and the Galaxy S, while Samsung sued Apple for patents in the field of network technology. A Dutch court recently ruled that Apple is indeed infringing a Samsung patent.