The temporary injunction in Australia against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 which was struck down on Wednesday, will remain in effect for one more week, according to a decision by the country’s High Court on Friday. The decision is designed to provide the High Court time to consider a request by Apple for special permission to pursue an appeal of the ban’s reversal by the Federal Court.
Apple declared its intent to appeal immediately following Wednesday’s ruling, though legal experts at the time wondered about the validity of that course of action. Australian patent lawyer Mark Summerfield even suggested Apple’s legal team may decide to back down on an appeal attempt, given the circumstances of the ruling, but that clearly hasn’t happened. Samsung in a statement to IDG News Service said that it believes there is no basis for an appeals application.
For Apple, pursuing the appeals process has clear advantages even if the application is ultimately denied. This week-long stay, for example, further hampers Samsung’s ability to get the Galaxy Tab on store shelves during the busy holiday shopping season. If Apple’s goal with its injunction attempts against Samsung is not to secure cross-licensing deals for patents at issue, but to “prevent the launch of the Galaxy Tab” as previously stated, then this delay contributes to that agenda, since Samsung’s lawyers previously stated that the later the launch would have to wait, the more seriously Samsung might have to consider shelving the device entirely in the Australian market.
Apple is also seeking to ban the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N, a modified version of Samsung’s original tablet designed to get around patent infringement issues which led to a block of sales of the 10.1 in Germany. The holiday season is a particularly crucial time for consumer electronics sales, so a full-court press from Apple at this critical juncture is the logical course of action.
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