Samsung defiant in face of ongoing Dutch court battle

Samsung has announced that it will launch its Galaxy 10.1 inch tablet in the Netherlands despite an ongoing case between it and rival tech giant Apple. The case would see sales of the tablet banned, as it has been in much of the rest of Europe.

Apple’s lawyers recently approached a Dutch court to have the sale of three different types of Samsung smartphone and three models of tablet, including the Galaxy Tab 10.1, banned. The injunction is the latest in series of court cases between the two companies.

The legal battles, which began in April, have all centred on accusations of design and patent infringements regarding aspects of the two companies’ smartphones and tablets.

The patent war has seen the companies pitched in legal battles everywhere from the US to Europe and Australia.

A court in Dusseldorf, Germany recently ruled in favour of Apple and placed on hold the sale of Samsung’s newest tablet throughout much of Europe. Samsung will begin an appeal against this decision in late August.

Samsung’s spokeswoman said she could not comment on how sales in the Netherlands would affect the trial’s outcome.

“Whatever the decision, we can continue our business as planned until October 13,” Villani said, referring to the date the judge would set for Samsung to remove offending products from the shelves if an injunction was granted in Apple’s favour.

Although Apple has been the primary plaintiff in the majority of the cases, the South Korean megalith has also attempted to strike blows of its own against Apple.

In June, it attempted to halt the import of Apple products into the US, accusing its Cupertino based rival of breaching five patents related to wireless communications standards and mobile device user interface.

The two companies once had a close relationship with Samsung supplying and building a number of the components for Apple products like the iPhone and the iPad.

Prior to their legal battles, Apple was Samsung’s second-largest client in 2010 after Japan’s Sony, accounting for four percent of the South Korean firm’s 155 trillion won (US$142-billion) annual revenue.