Apple to Samsung: Get Out of Town, Wins Permanent Ban on German Tablet Sales

Samsung must take its Galaxy Tab 10.1 somewhere else besides Germany because a German court backed Apple, the world's most valuable technology company, and banned sales of the tablet computer in the country.

A Dusseldorf court on Friday upheld the temporary sales ban it issued on Aug. 9, and rejected Samsung's bid to overturn it. The Galaxy 10.1 Tab looks too much like Apple's iPad 2, the district court ruled.

The court is of the opinion that Apple's minimalistic design isn't the only technical solution to make a tablet computer, other designs are possible, Brueckner-Hofmann said. For the informed customer there remains the predominant overall impression that the device looks like the design Apple has protected in Europe.

But the judges won't ban sales in other European Union countries as Apple had sought, Presiding Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann said when delivering the verdict, according to Bloomberg.

The iPad maker won a second injunction at the same court last week that forced Samsung to pull the new Galaxy Tab 7.7 out of the IFA consumer-electronics show in Berlin.

Samsung is Apple's closest rival and the legal battle between both companies, in terms of tablet computers, is intensifying at a time when the number of consumers using such devices and smartphones to surf the Web, play games and download music is growing.

Samsung has said it will appeal the ruling.

The ruling severely limits consumer choice in Germany and restricts design innovation and progress in the industry, the company said in a statement e-mailed to Bloomberg after the ruling was issued.