Apple has not been afraid to start patent wars almost daily, and today is no difference. While many tech experts believe that these lawsuits are frivolous, apparently one has been deemed to carry weight by a German court. According to an article posted on Huffington Post, a German judge has awarded an injunction against Samsung to prevent them from selling their Galaxy Tab 7.7 tablet device. While this injunction is only in effect in Germany, Apple has been trying to get similar injunctions awarded all across the globe, including the United States, South Korea, and Australia.
Apple and Samsung have been in battle for months because Apple believes that Samsung has blatantly copied their technologies. Apple claims that the Galaxy Tab 7.7's design too closely mirrors that of the iPad. In addition, the customized version of the Android OS that is featured on the Galaxy Tab 7.7 almost directly copies the user interface of Apple's iOS, the company claims.
It is surprising that an injunction has been awarded between two high-profile companies, but with the emergence of patent wars across numerous technology companies over the past year, these types of legal rulings are more likely to become common in the future. Patents have proven such a valuable commodity, both in the technology they protect and the ability to avoid drawn out patent wars, that companies have started merging with other companies purely to acquire their patents. Google's acquisition of Motorola for $12 billion is the latest prime example of this emerging pattern.
Apple and Samsung, however, are not friends and won't be merging anytime soon, so it will be interesting to see how the patent wars between these two companies end up.
