Okay, I didn't see this one coming. German press agency dpa is reporting that Apple has been granted a preliminary injunction barring Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 from being distributed in the entire European Union except for The Netherlands, over a design patent. Competition at its finest, people, and this is clearly in the interest of consumers. I'm ashamed to be European. Instant update: Two 'short hearings' will take place this week in The Hague, in which Apple demands an injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (Wednesday) and the Galaxy S smartphones (Thursday). I will try to report on the outcomes of these two cases as quickly as possible. I'm hoping my legal system isn't as idiotic as that of Duesseldorf. At the same time, Samsung has filed for a 'bottom procedure' in The Netherlands against Apple, which is a lengthy court case where all details will be taken into account (as opposed to a short hearing which is just to get a quick, temporary ruling). Update II: As Mueller points out in an updated version of his post, this isn't about patents. This injunction is based on a Community Design, which is a sort of EU-wide trademark. The Community Design is literally just that - a few drawings of a generic device. These drawings (Community Design 000181607-0001) could fit basically anything to my untrained eye, but alas. Update III: From the Community Design directive: "A Community design shall not subsist in features of appearance of a product which are solely dictated by its technical function." Really now. Update IV: I'm browsing though Apple's Community Designs (enter 'Apple' at owner), and they have at least a thousand of them - the search results are limited to 1000. This is absolutely idiotic - while some of them are clearly Apple products, most of them are just generic designs, and in fact, Apple seems to iterate their Community Designs - starting with basic shapes, moving all the way up to photos of actual devices, with each iteration being a separate, enforceable filing! Many are truly and utterly generic - take a look at this one, or this, or this (a stretched black rectangle ffs!), or this (a folder icon!). Apple can sue pretty much ANY product maker with this. This is like a slumbering and unknown version of the USPTO! Update V: It gets worse. Fill in any company's name. Hilarity will ensue. Update VI: Samsung has responded. It's crazy. Samsung was not notified about any of this, and consequently, did not even have the opportunity to defend itself. The judge just granted this injuction when Apple asked for it - no questions asked. What the heck is going on here?!
Really absurd
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