Australian judge: Apple iPad sales would help in Galaxy Tab suit
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Apple might have to reveal U.S. and British sales figures for the first and second generation of its iPad if it hopes to win a patent suit against Samsung in Australia.
Submitting such sales figures could help demonstrate whether the launch of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia would hurt iPad sales there, Annabelle Bennett, an Australian Federal Court Justice, said in court Tuesday, according to a Bloomberg news report.
Apple has argued that the Galaxy Tab 10.1, down to the tablet computer’s ‘look and feel’ and touch-screen technology, infringes on 10 Apple-owned patents and that allowing the Samsung tablet to be sold in Australia would be detrimental to iPad sales.
The iPad has sold alongside the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the U.S and Britain, although neither Apple nor Samsung has publicly released sales figures for their respective tablets in those countries. However, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet is on a sales freeze in Australia, one that Samsung voluntarily agreed to until its patent dispute with Apple is resolved.
‘Unless Apple puts on evidence showing the impact in the U.S. or U.K., I can’t draw any positive assumptions,’ Bennett said, according to Bloomberg.
But Bennett also said she isn’t going to order Apple to fork over the sales figures and denied Samsung’s request for the figures, the report said.
Samsung has maintained that the iPad and the Galaxy Tab are different enough products that its tablet hasn’t greatly hurt iPad sales.
Apple and Samsung are also battling over patents for the iPad and iPhone and the Galaxy Tab and Galaxy phones in courts in Europe and the U.S.
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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles
Nathan Olivarez-Giles
Los Angeles Times
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