Apple vs Samsung Australia.

The dispute between Samsung and Apple has been circulating in the press for some time and Australia has been embroiled in this as well. There have been many people looking forward to purchasing a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 but it looks like they will have to wait. Who knows, by the time all this is over Samsung may well have developed a completely new product rendering this one obsolete. The national newspaper "The Australian" printed an article called Apple, Samsung case faces hurdles Andrew Colley October 28, 2011 You can read the full article online but I've attempted to write a a brief summary of what has come to light in the court case.

Apple has claimed that Samsung infringed two of it's touchscreen patents and had won a temporary court injunction against the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 until the commencement of a trail later this year.

Samsung appealed the ruling and applied for an injunction to ban the sale of Apple's iPhone in Australia and Japan.

The appeal is to be held before the full court.

There is a sticking point though, as both Apple and Samsung have argued how much they are prepared to share with each other. There's no point in giving the opposition technical information they'd rather keep to themselves.

Apple doesn't want to pass over technical specifications for mobile transmission chips and firmware that it uses in iPhone 4S and is resisting passing over other sensitive specifications to patent experts.

Apple argues that they need permission from Qualcomm the chip supplier to hand over the information and they think that Samsung is asking for too broad a range of information and has asked for them to narrow it down.

During all this the Justice (Foster) presiding over the proceedings showed frustration in Apple's reluctance stating that if Apple don't keep records available for easy reference then he questions their ability to run a business. He was sceptical of Apple's lead barrister indicating that the company wouldn't have the specifications available.

Samsungs barrister argued that they needed a broad range of information so that the expert company witness could make a proper assessment.

Samsung on the other hand has also made it difficult to make available a broad range of commercial records. They have argued that the documents are not relevant to the case and didn't want to share previous settlement agreements which were highly confidential.

The case continues.

Follow more by checking out The Australian online.

— modified on Oct 31, 2011, 2:11:52 PM

The Apple vs Samsung court case continues in Australia. A document discovery process is underway but Apple is reluctant to share some documents because they may contain information which might make it's way to persons who might be part of US export embargoes.

For those who don't know which countries are currently embargoed here is a quote from a US technology site. I might add that the embargoed countries were not revealed in open court. A quick search of the web did present this:

"Government policy is to deny requests for such authorization in almost all cases.

As of March 2003, the following countries are subject to U.S. embargo or restrictive trade sanctions:

Cuba
Iran
Iraq*
Libya**
North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea)
Sudan
Syria

This list is subject to change. For the most current information on U.S. embargoed and sanctioned countries, see the U.S. Export Administration Regulations and Treasury Department regulations."

In any event Apple's layers are seeking a guarantee that Samsung does not share the documents with any expert witnesses or citizens of those countries.

Interestingly, the Federal Court Justice Lindsay Foster told Samsung lawyers that he was "not very keen" on making the order. He said that he's not an instrument of the USA.

Apple seems to have softened on the order but still asked the court to note it's request and asked Samsung to notify the court if it was going to share the information with any embargoed person/country.

An appeal date against the injunction against Samsung sales is expected soon.

The saga continues.

Well the appeal date has been set. Samsung's appeal against the injunction blocking the device's sale will be heard on November 25.
If Samsung is successful it won't give it much time to ramp up the advertising and sales for Christmas, a critical time for moving product.

The legal activity between Apple and Samsung patent rights are also taking place throughout courts in Britain, the US, Japan, South Korea and Europe.

I look forward to finding out what happens but I'll have to be patient. My travels take me at that time well beyond any access to any phone or data connection.

For those following the Apple vs Samsung wrangle here in Australia, the court has made it's judgement and Apple has failed in preventing Samsung from selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Apple of course appealed the decision, but the courts dismissed the appeal to challenge.
This is of course not the end of the saga, Apple still wants to continue its patent claims against Samsung when the matter when it goes to trial next year.
In the meantime Samsung is trying to get the product on the shelves before Christmas.

In a story elsewhere (check out the blogs in AndroidPIT) Apple seems to be getting a little bit of it's own litigation medicine in China. Apparently a company called Proview named a tablet "iPad" years ago. Apple purchased the naming rights from proview, but it seems only the Taiwanese rights not Chinese. So... they've lost a court hearing in China. Proview has sued Apple resellers in China, in an attempt to block the sale of the Apple iPad. In October, it also sued Apple for 10 billion yuan, or around 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, over the alleged trademark infringement.

Apple can still appeal this decision.