James Delahunty
14 Aug 2011 6:55
Injunction doesn't harm sales of the Android-based tablet in Germany.
The decision by a German court earlier to his that forced a block on the import of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1, has not yet affected the sale of the device in the country. In fact, the leading retail chain MediaMarkt is promoting the Galaxy Tab model at a new lower price of €469 this weekend.
Financial Times Deutschland confirmed that the tablet PC is to stay on sale as usual, quoting a spokeswoman for Media-Saturn, the holding company of all MediaMarkt stores.
The reason that the German retailers can continue to sell the device in the wake of the preliminary injunction, is that it only applies to Samsung. That is, Samsung cannot import the device into the country and it also cannot promote the device within the country, but that injunction does not have to be respected by firms independent of Samsung.
Apple could go back to court and name the retailers as new defendants if it so pleased, but analysts think it is unlikely to do so as those same stores are major Apple customers in Europe.
Apple has accused Samaung of slavishly cloning the iPhone and iPad in its products, leading to a heated legal dispute in Europe, the United States and South Korea.