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Samsung given Galaxy Tab go-ahead after Apple loses sales ban bid

An Australian court has lifted a sales ban on Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1, allowing the highly anticipated tablet to be sold in the region -- finally.
Written by Zack Whittaker, Contributor

An Australian court has lifted a sales ban on Galaxy 10.1 tablet, giving Samsung the green light to push the highly anticipated tablet out onto the market just in time for Christmas.

The sales injunction had been in effect since late July, after Apple secured a bid in court to ban the tablet from store shelves.

But on Friday, Australia's High Court refused Apple's application for special leave to appeal in the ongoing patent dispute, which has spread to over 30 cases in 10 jurisdictions.

Samsung said it was "pleased" with the judgement, sister-site ZDNet Australia reports.

An earlier Federal Court decision lifted the injunction that had prevented the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1, but Apple immediately requested a stay on the order as to allow its appeal process to go through to a higher court. This then forced an extra week on the then-lifted injunction.

While the High Court did not explicitly say that there were no grounds for Apple to appeal, it said that there would be little chance of the case succeeding.

The Cupertino-based giant was also ordered to pay legal costs for Samsung's case, but details are yet to be finalised.

While Samsung prevailed in this case, Apple was given reprieve in a French court after the Korean giant had proposed a sales ban in the country of the iPhone 4S.

Sales of the tablet in Australia will have been severely dented by this sales injunction, but the company hopes to recoup some of its losses in the coming fortnight leading up to the end-of-year holiday season.

Read more on this story from ZDNet Australia.

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