Apple unlikely to win German ban on tweaked Samsung tablet

Apple is not likely to succeed in its efforts to ban Samsung’s revised flagship tablet in Germany, the judge presiding over the case said on Thursday. The Dusseldorf court in September banned a local Samsung subsidiary from selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany after determining that the design of Samsung’s tablet copied the iPad too closely. “Other designs are possible,” Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann said at the time, and Samsung came back with a tweaked Galaxy Tab 10.1N in November that included changes intended to help Samsung skirt the ban. Apple filed a new complaint later that month in an effort to block sales of the revised slate, but the judge said on Thursday that Apple is unlikely to win this time around. Judge Brueckner-Hofmann said Samsung’s changes appear to have addressed the problem areas she saw in its original 10-inch tablet, Bloomberg Businesweek reported, though an official determination has not yet been made.

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