Apple bitten again

US-based consumer electronics producer Apple on Thursday failed to stop the sale of rival Samsung's new tablet computer Galaxy Tab 10.1 N which was made especially for the German market.

A regional court in Düsseldorf argued that consumers were unlikely to confuse the redesigned tablet device with Apple's iPad.

Last year, Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 was banned in Germany, with a court agreeing with Apple's argument that the device looked too much like its own tablet. The South Korean company responded by altering the design.

Judges in Düsseldorf said there was still no denying that the Galaxy Tab still had some resemblance to the iPad, but they thought that the similarities were not so great that consumers would confuse the rival models and cause damage to the Apple brand.

Fierce rivalry

Germanyhas recently been the focus of a worldwide legal battle between Apple and Samsung, mostly over design and style patents.

The Düsseldorf verdict is the third blow for Apple, which had already seen two other German courts in Munich and Mannheim rule against its bid to ban Galaxy Tab 10.1 N sales in the country as well as the South Koreans' Nexus smartphones.

Samsung welcomed Thursday's ruling. "Our 10.1 N will continue to be available for German customers," the company said in a statement.

But the Asian firm remains in the firing line elsewhere. European regulators last month opened an antitrust probe to determine whether Samsung distorted competition in European mobile device markets by unjustifiably alleging infringements of its patent rights.

Author: Hardy Graupner (dpa, AFP)
Editor: Michael Lawton