US judge rules Samsung tablets do infringe Apple patents

Apple won't get advance notice of new Samsung products
Another win/lose for Apple

Update: A US judge has ruled that Samsung has indeed infringed on some Apple patents in its Galaxy Tab range, although she has not yet banned sales of the gadgets in North America.

Before she'll grant Apple the necessary preliminary injunction to stem Samsung sales, Judge Lucy Koh told Apple that it must now prove that its claim over the relevant patents is valid.

That means it will have to provide evidence that Apple deserves to own the patents, which include three patents covering the design of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Samsung Galaxy S 4G.

If Apple can prove its patents, it will be a big blow to Samsung as it may be forced to take these big hitting mobile devices off the US's shelves.

Meanwhile, in Australia...

Apple has had its bid to get advance notice of all new Samsung mobile products rejected by the Australian courts.

Justice Annabelle Bennett sternly told Apple that the preliminary injunction stopping sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia "doesn't apply to any other player in the marketplace".

Apple had argued that Samsung would likely put together a new, modified version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in order to circumvent the Australian sales ban – just as it did with some handsets in the Netherlands – and wanted sight of the new device before it went on sale.

Tomato tomato

Apple's legal counsel argued, "Samsung says Galaxy Tab 10.1, we say any tablet device. We know what may well come is another version of the tablet.

"It's up to our friends as to how they name it, whether they call it the Galaxy Tab 10.1 or 10.2 or 10.1s or whatever it happens to be.

"Our submission is that direction which would provide us a copy of the version proposed to be launched 10 days in advance."

However, there is some bad news for Samsung in that the judge also ruled that it is not allowed to launch any version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia until the final ruling of the trial is made – that's likely to be in 2012.

Via SlashGear

News Editor (UK)

Former UK News Editor for TechRadar, it was a perpetual challenge among the TechRadar staff to send Kate (Twitter, Google+) a link to something interesting on the internet that she hasn't already seen. As TechRadar's News Editor (UK), she was constantly on the hunt for top news and intriguing stories to feed your gadget lust. Kate now enjoys life as a renowned music critic – her words can be found in the i Paper, Guardian, GQ, Metro, Evening Standard and Time Out, and she's also the author of 'Amy Winehouse', a biography of the soul star.