Earlier we posted on Samsung’s request to have early access to Apple’s un-released and unannounced products esp iPhone 5 and iPad 3. As per expectations, a federal judge denied Samsung’s request in a ruling handed down yesterday.
Samsung claims that it needs to see Apple’s future products because devices like the Droid Charge and Galaxy Tab 10.1 will presumably be in the market at the same time as the iPhone 5 and iPad 3, and Samsung’s lawyers want to evaluate any possible similarities so they can prepare for further potential legal action from Apple. It’s ballsy, but it’s not totally out of the blue..
Samsung claimed that his request was equally legitimate as Apple’s previous move to see the Samsung’s products which are now in the market.
- The good news for Apple is that Samsung’s motion is denied at least for the time being. This comes as little surprise.It was all too obvious that Samsung was comparing apples to bananas: Apple’s request for expedited discovery was far more justified (in terms of a need to evaluate the requested material) and far less prejudicial (as Apple only requested products of which samples were already circulating, in the case of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 including 5,000 samples handed out at a Google developer conference) than Samsung’s related motion.Even though the court had previously indicated that “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander”, the “what” was very different between the two requests, and the “why”, too. The judge made a lot of effort in her 11-page order to explain that Samsung is entitled to “parity” but its motion was overreaching in this case.
- The potentially bad news for Apple is that the court order contains a passage hinting that Apple may not get a preliminary injunction against the sale of certain Samsung products in the United States at this stage.Instead, it may be necessary for the court to evaluate such a motion against the background of the iPhone 5 (as far as any Samsung phones are concerned) and the iPad 3 (as far as any Samsung tablet computers are concerned), whenever Apple is in a position to present those products.
The rumors about next generation iPhone and iPad are already in circulation indicating an announcement of iPhone 5 in August and actual release in September.
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