FOSS Patents reports that a Dutch court just issued a "formally Europe-wide" preliminary injunction, banning the sale of Galaxy S, Galaxy S II, and Ace smartphones, beginning October 13, at the request of Apple.
According to FOSS, "formally Europe-wide" covers only those countries in Europe where Apple completed the full patent application process: Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.
Notably, the Galaxy tablets were not included in the injunction. The injunction is based on only one of the infringement claims that Apple raised, regarding swiping gestures between images. Specifically, the injunction relates to the current software version of the Samsung devices listed, but does not cover cover future software releases that address this issue.
According to the BBC, Samsung intends to modify the software as a workaround to the injunction. Samsung is also touted the ruling as a victory of sorts, because only one of Apple's claims was included in the ruling.
"Today's ruling is an affirmation that the Galaxy range of products is innovative and distinctive," Samsung said in a company statement. "With regard to the single infringement cited in the ruling, we will take all possible measures including legal action to ensure that there is no disruption in the availability of our Galaxy smartphones to Dutch consumers."
Via 9to5mac
Adrian covers daily news as well as the weekly Law & Apple column for MacLife.com. You can follow him on Twitter, if you want to.
