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Thursday, April 18, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

German Court Deals a New Blow to Samsung Galaxy

(CN) - Samsung's Galaxy Tab suffered another blow at the hands of a German court, which granted Apple a second injunction blocking sales of the tablet's latest model in the country.

Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann's ruling comes at a particularly bad time for Samsung, which had planned to market its new Galaxy Tab 7.7 at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin this week.

Last month, the same Dusseldorf Regional Court stopped sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 throughout Europe, except the Netherlands. That ruling was eventually scaled back to just Germany and is now joined by the second ban.

Samsung's stock dropped 4.9 percent after decision was announced. The company's stock prices have dropped 23 percent this year.

Though Apple is Samsung's second largest consumer of chips and displays, the South Korean company faces intellectual property suits from the customer in three continents, with Apple claiming that Android phones and tablets copy the iPhone and iPad.

Germany represents the third largest European tablet market after the U.K. and France. The country is expected to see 2.4 million tablets be there this year.

Apple also halted sales of Samsung's Galaxy S, SII and Ace phones in the Netherlands in late August, but failed to secure an injunction against the Galaxy Tab in the country. Samsung planned to avoid that ruling by modifying the copyright-infringing software before the ban takes effect.

Apple dominated the tablet market last quarter, holding 69 percent compared to Samsung's 16 percent, according to market research company Strategy Analytics.

Samsung plans to appear in court on Friday to challenge the injunctions.

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