US court lifts sales ban on Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

A U.S. court has lifted a sales ban on the Samsung Electronics Galaxy Tab 10.1, allowing the company to resume sales of the tablet PC for the first time in four months.

According to major foreign media Monday, Lucy Koh, the presiding judge of the San Jose Northern District Court of California, accepted Samsung`s motion to lift the temporary sales ban on the tablet in the U.S. Jurors in Apple`s previous lawsuit against Samsung had excluded the Galaxy Tab 10.1 among six devices that the former had claimed Samsung infringed on its patents.

Samsung immediately responded and requested the lifting of the sales ban to the court. In June, Apple had applied for a sales ban of the device, claiming it infringed on its design patent, and the court accepted the request.

Koh had rejected the lifting of the Samsung sales ban due to a pending appeal. The U.S. Court of Appeals, however, demanded on Sept. 28 re-examination of the decision to ban sales of the Galaxy Tab, which she immediately responded by lifting the ban.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is an older model tablet PC. On this item, Koh denied a request by Samsung for 2.6 million dollars that Apple had posted as bond to "pay the costs and damages sustained by any party found to have been wrongfully enjoined or restrained."

Newer Samsung products including the Galaxy Note 10.1 are selling in the U.S. Accordingly, the decision is not expected to help Samsung raise sales much.

Nevertheless, experts say Samsung is in an advantageous position ahead of a Dec. 6 court hearing on its eight smartphone models and Tablet CP model that Apple applied a sales ban request on in August. Through an email statement, Samsung said, "The latest decision proves that Samsung has not infringed on Apple`s patent."

Samsung also added Apple`s new smartphone iPhone 5 to the list of products subject to its patent lawsuit with Apple. Samsung had filed the suit in April, claiming that Apple infringed on six of its patents. Samsung’s latest decision is a response to Apple`s adding Samsung`s new devices Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 10.1 in its lawsuit list.

witness@donga.com