Samsung Fails To Block Sale Of iPhone 4S In France

A French court has rejected Samsung’s request for a ban on the sale of the iPhone 4S in France.

In the latest in a series of tit-for-tat lawsuits between Samsung and Apple, the Korean manufacturer alleged that the iPhone 4S copied aspects of its Galaxy range of Android smartphones.

“Out of proportion”

The court not only refused to grant a preliminary injunction but ordered Samsung to pay Apple’s €100,000 (£85,000) legal fees, labelling the lawsuit “out of proportion”.

“It became clear that the legal standard for a preliminary injunction is reasonably high in France, and Apple’s lawyers made a number of points that I couldn’t verify in their entirety but which appeared strong enough to dissuade the court from ordering a ban,” commented analyst Florian Mueller.

“As far as the French case is concerned, Samsung’s motion failed miserably. Compared to this defeat, Apple actually got a far more favourable result in California, even though it was also denied a preliminary injunction. The way in which Samsung lost shows that its strategy may be fundamentally flawed,” he added.

Samsung is seeking a similar injunction in Italy next Friday and Mueller believes that it is highly likely the French court’s decision will be taken into account. He said that if the Italian bid fails then both parties will have to rethink their strategy of attempting to obtain fast-track preliminary injunctions as failure just strengthens their opponent.

This latest development in the worldwide legal battle between Samsung and Apple comes just as the Australian High Court rejected Apple’s request to extend the ban on the Samsung Galaxy Tab in the country.

Apple alleges that the design of Samsung’s tablet imitates its iPad and wanted to block the sale of the device. It won an injunction in October, but this was overturned last week and Apple lost its final appeal today.

However, it has appealed a decision by a US District Court not to ban the Galaxy Tab, while in September, a German court decided to permanently ban the device from sale in the country.