As part of major international patent litigation, Samsung has prevailed over Apple in Australia in a preliminary injunction skirmish.
As a global tablet battle rages between these two multinationals, Apple launched action in Australia over a number of granted patents and sought an interim injunction to keep the Samsung Galaxy tablet product out of the market. Both parties accepted that the tablet products have a very short shelf life, with new products being released each year. It was accepted that any preliminary injunction would most probably constitute a final resolution of the matter as the tablet would be superseded before a hearing could take place.
While Apple was successful at the first instance, the appeals courts overturned the initial judge's finding. Whilst a core consideration for interim injunctions is the "balance of convenience", it seems that the courts were more concerned to read this as the "the balance of the risk of doing an injustice", and the fact that an injunction would effectively eliminate a transient product from the market was of greater significance. The appeals court held that: "Where the merits and the question of convenience are fairly evenly balanced, there will be no injustice in requiring that the party seeking relief demonstrate good prospects of success before imposing almost certain prejudice on the other side."
While Samsung has prevailed in an initial skirmish, no doubt further substantive cases will follow.
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| Peter Treloar |
Shelston IP
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Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
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