Friday, 12 August 2011

Apple's design filing bears fruit

Thanks to Class 99 member Jean-Jacques Canonici for news of Apple's pre-emptive strike against Samsung's Galaxy tablet in Germany, just a week after its launch.  This blog posting by Florian Mueller (famous, or infamous, as the man who sunk the EU's software patent Directive and fell out not only with the IP community but also with his former Free Software buddies) appears to show that Community Design RCD 181607-0001 has been asserted and an ex-parte preliminary injunction granted.  More information is here indicating that Samsung had filed a protective writ but to no avail, and that an inter-partes hearing will follow in Dusseldorf on 25th August. 
The Guardian newspaper in the UK suggests that the design was registered with the Customs for pan-EU customs enforcement (which would not require any finding by the court, preliminary or otherwise).
It also appears that Apple obtained a preliminary injunction under parallel designs in Australia, though Samsung say they will release a different product there (hmmm........).
A powerful first strike by Apple, who have been prolific design filers for the iPhone and the iPad.  However, in the long term, will there be validity issues in enforcing a design to a chamfered rectangle?  Enough money is at stake that surrender by either side seems unlikely - hopefully, we can expect some answers from the European Community Design Courts over the next year or so.

No comments:

Post a Comment