IT News & Views

Turns out Samsung wasn't exactly straight when it claimed it was completely blindsided by the preliminary injunction Apple got last Tuesday barring the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from being distributed anywhere in the European Union except Holland.

Seems Samsung filed a "protect pleading" (Schutzschrift) with the Düsseldorf district court (Landesgericht) almost a week before the preliminary injunction was issued trying to head off the decision.

And although, according to German custom, the order was issued without a hearing or Samsung presenting any evidence, the court said in a press release that it took Samsung's protective pleading into account before it made its ruling.

Florian Mueller, who's following the case on his FOSS blog, says that the court's press release - which is in German - says Samsung's Schutzschrift argued that no urgency existed to justify a preliminary injunction - although it was in the process of launching an allegedly infringing product - and that it's going to petition to have the Community design IP Apple asserted declared invalid.

Obviously the court was not persuaded. Samsung has filed its opposition to the injunction and a hearing is now set for August 25.

The court said Samsung is planning to come up with more elaborate arguments by then. They better be good because Florian says the only way a defendant can usually get an order lifted is to prove the plaintiff was factually wrong. Florian is betting the court affirms its decision and that Samsung winds up appealing to the Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf while Apple's complaint continues on its way to trial in the Landesgericht in about a year.

See http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/08/samsung-pleaded-unsuccessfully-against.html.