In the wake of several patent-related victories over Samsung, Apple was dealt a setback Wednesday when a Munich court declined to ban the modified Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N in Germany.
"Samsung has shown that it is more likely than not that the patent will be revoked because of a technology that was already on the market before the intellectual property had been filed for protection," said Munich Regional Court Judge Andreas Mueller, according to a report from Bloomberg.
The ruling comes one day after the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court upheld a ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the country for violations of Germany's unfair competition law. That went into effect in August and in an effort to get around the ban, Samsung introduced the modified Galaxy Tab 10.1N, which has a metal frame or bezel that wraps all the way around the edge of the tablet. It hit the German market the week of Nov. 21, and not surprisingly, Apple also sought to have the 10.1N included in its lawsuit.
The Munich court, however, apparently thought Samsung had altered its tablet enough so as not to violate Apple's patents.
According to Bloomberg, the court also declined to ban the sale of the popular Galaxy Nexus mobile phone.
In a statement, Samsung said it "welcomes" the ruling. "We will continue to assert our intellectual property rights and defend against Apple's claims to ensure our continued ability to provide innovative mobile products," the company said.
"German courts are very reluctant to grant preliminary injunctions based on patents covering technical inventions. Design rights are a different thing," patent blogger Florian Mueller said in a statement. "Apple may have made this attempt in Munich because the courts in Mannheim and Düsseldorf, the two German cities in which most patent lawsuits are brought, are known to generally deny such bids unless a patent has previously survived at least one legal challenge to its validity. This patent appears to be too new to have withstood that kind of scrutiny, and it's possible that Munich decided to be equally cautious here as the two leading German patent infringement courts would have been."
In recent weeks, a separate German court dismissed two of Samsung's claims against Apple.
Yesterday, meanwhile, the European Commission opened an investigation into Samsung's patent suits against Apple, which will look into whether Samsung has used its patents to "distort competition" in the European mobile market with its lawsuits against Apple.
Earlier today, Samsung confirmed that it won't introduce the Galaxy S III phone at Mobile World Congress, but the company may have tablet and OS announcements.
For more, see PCMag's review of the original Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the slideshow below.
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