Apple’s iPad is not hurt by Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, a Dutch appeals court just ruled. Apple had appealed an August 2011 decision that the South Korean tablet didn’t infringe upon the iPad’s design. Today’s ruling only answered whether the design of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 too closely resembled the Cupertino, Calif. tech giant’s product.
The original ruling against Apple’s infringement claims against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was actually a split decision that partially favored the iPhone. The Dutch court had agreed with Apple that Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones infringed an image gallery scroll technology, issuing a temporary injunction. That ruling prompted Samsung to modify the Galaxy software.
In another ruling in the long-standing patent war, this time in Germany, a Dusseldorf court issued a preliminary injunction against Samsung, finding the Apple rival had infringed upon the design. That legal decision gave birth to the Galaxy Tab 10.1N, a redesigned tabled aimed specifically for German sales.
The appeal loss comes as Newsweek reports a rumor that Apple spent $100 million battling Android-handset maker HTC. Apple started with 84 patent claims filed against the company with the International Trade Commission in early 2010. That patent pool dropped to four disputed patents by the time the issue made it in front of a judge. In his biography, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs promised a “thermonuclear war” against Android handset manufacturers. So far, that war has only become an expensive skirmish for the deep-pocketed tech giant.