Dutch court backs UK Apple ruling

The District Court of the Hague has backed a UK high court ruling that the rounded corners of three of Samsung’s Galaxy tablets do not infringe an Apple Community design.

In a judgement delivered on Wednesday, Hague judge Peter Blok agreed with a July 2012 ruling by UK judge Colin Birss that Samsung Galaxy Tabs 10.1, 8.9 and 7.7 do not infringe Apple’s iPad design because they lack the same “extreme simplicity”, are “not as cool” and “produce a different overall impression”.

Apple appealed against the decision, but the UK Court of Appeal upheld it in October, and ordered Apple to publish adverts in national newspapers and a notice on its website confirming that Samsung’s products are non-infringing.

Citing Birss's ruling, Blok said in his judgement that the decision of the higher UK court should be upheld in the Netherlands, and ordered Apple to pay Samsung’s legal costs. Apple also faces a fine of €100,000 per day, up to a maximum of €10 million, if it attempts to obstruct Galaxy Tab sales.

Willem Hoyng, a partner at Hoyng Monegier in Amsterdam, said the Hague’s decision was the right one, but that Samsung could have avoided successive court battles over the design patent if it had sought a declaration of non-infringement.

“The court’s decision is logical, because all EU courts belong to the same judicial system – when an English court delivers a decision on a community design, it is viewed as a community court and not an English one” he said.

“What I do not understand, is why Samsung did not just go to one court and ask for a declaration of non-infringement which would have applied to all these European cases. Perhaps it is because Samsung is a Korean company, but with a little creativity, they could have filed for one decision to cover all Samsung entities in the EU,” he added.

The tablet design dispute is just one of a series of patent lawsuits between Apple and Samsung – in March 2014, they are scheduled to go to trial in the US over a series of infringement claims relating to smartphone patents.

The list of products in the US lawsuit was extended last week to include the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy Note, but the companies reached an agreement over new Samsung smartphone the Galaxy S III mini, with Apple agreeing to withdraw infringement claims against Samsung because it does not sell the product in the US.

Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday’s verdict, but Samsung said in a statement that it welcomed the Dutch court’s decision, adding: “We continue to believe that Apple was not the first to design a tablet with a rectangular shape and rounded corners…the origins of Apple’s registered design features can be found in numerous examples of prior art.”