Samsung on Thursday confirmed that it will introduce a new version of its Galaxy Tab tablet in Germany in order to get around an existing ban on the product stemming from a patent fight with Apple.
"The Galaxy Tab 10.1N, a new version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1, will be available in Germany beginning the week of November 21st," a Samsung spokesman said in an email. "Samsung has introduced this new version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in order to meet consumer demand for our innovative and distinctive products. The product will be available only in Germany."
The Galaxy Tab is currently banned in Germany thanks to a September ruling from the Düsseldorf Regional Court, which upheld a preliminary injunction against the sale of the tablet in the country.
The German Galaxy Tab drama started in August when the Dusseldorf court blocked the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Europe, with the exception of the Netherlands. Amidst questions over whether a German court had the right to ban a Korean company from selling its wares outside Germany, the court later tightened its ruling and only applied the ban to sales within Germany.
Reports of the modified Galaxy Tab 10.1 emerged yesterday on Germany blog MobiFlip.de. The 10.1N is not drastically different from the original 10.1; patent blogger Florian Mueller pointed to German-language blog allaboutsamsung.de, which said the metal frame or bezel "now wraps all around the edge to the extent that a part of it covers the margins of the front side."
"That is a characteristic of at least one of the devices rejected by the court as prior art," Mueller wrote in a blog post. "It seems to me that this design resulted from teamwork between Samsung's German lawyers and its product design group."
The Galaxy Tab is also banned in Australia at the moment.
Samsung and Apple are waging a global patent battle against one another in a dispute that dates back to April, when Apple sued Samsung for copying the look and feel of its iPhone and iPad in its flagship Galaxy S line of smartphones and tablets, among other devices. Samsung responded with a countersuit that targeted Apple for infringing on five patents relating to wireless networking technology.
That has now expanded to approximately 30 cases worldwide. Today, for example, the two sides faced off in Paris over Samsung's motion to ban the iPhone 4S. Mueller was in attendance for a portion of the hearing and said via Twitter that, among other things, Apple claimed that "Samsung's use of standards patents is so 'violent' that the European Commission started an antitrust inquiry."
Earlier this month, the European Commission asked Samsung and Apple to turn over data related to the enforcement of mobile-related patents.