iPad vs NT-K Android Tablet: Apple Loses Patent Suit Against Minor Rival in Spain
![iPad vs NT-K Android Tablet: Apple Loses Patent Suit Against Minor Rival in Spain [Unexpected Patent Loss Bruises Apple’s Ego, Makes Sure Galaxy Tab 10.1 Is Safe in the Region]](http://tftscdn.nexus404.com/Blog/thumbnailimages/alt/nt-k-tabletTFTSThumb220153.jpg)
Apple is engaged in various patent-based lawsuits against a number of renown Android device makers including Samsung, Motorola and HTC, but the Cupertino-based company has filed similar lawsuits against minor companies too.
One such company is Nuevas Tecnologia y Energias Catala from Valencia, Spain. What’s so special about it you ask? Well, it makes a NT-K Android tablet that you have probably not heard about but that managed to capture Apple’s attention. Subsequently the Cupertino-based company unleashed the furry of its legal arm in Spain and sued the NT-K makers in late 2010.
And guess what happened? Apple lost the case, which is something we’re not used to hearing when it comes to the company’s legal conflicts against Android device makers. What’s really interesting in this case is that Apple’s design claims, the same ones that have been proved to be so effective in Germany and Australia where the company obtained injunctions against Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales, were unsuccessful in Spanish courts. That means that a future Apple vs Samsung patent case would be less likely to result in a tablet sales ban in the region.
What’s also interesting is that the Spanish company is now looking for damages from Apple, “for a temporary seizure of its products by Spanish customs. Furthermore, the Spaniards are pursuing an anitrust complaint against Apple, alleging abusive anticompetitive behavior.”
It appears that Spanish customs seized NT-K tablet shipments from China last year after Apple accused the company of copying its iPad design. Furthermore, the Spanish company was then mentioned on the EU-wide list of product pirates for a while and Apple went of to bring criminal charges against the Android device maker in early December 2010.
This may have been the first time Apple brought on criminal charges against an Android rival, but the trial was dismissed as the judge didn’t find “sufficient justification” for such a case.
As FOSS Patents notes, this Spanish patent story makes Apple look “very bad,” considering the added criminal claims that were added to the an otherwise usual patent dispute for Cupertino.
Credit: Source.Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 Tablet Release Date & Pricing Confirmed By Verizon, Will Arrive March 1st With Features To Include 4G LTE Connectivity & Android 3.2 Honeycomb
Apple Hits Samsung With New Patent-Based Lawsuit, This Time Focuses on Google Flagship Phone
Apple Awarded Core iPhone Multitouch Patent, Will We See It Used in Fight Against Android?
Samsung Witnesses Major Victory for Apple in the Netherlands in FRAND-based Patent Case
4 Comments / Add Your Response?
Breaking News
The TFTS Team
About damn time that apple got denied. Now we just need to destroy the company so that no more apple products are ever produced and physically assault any idiot that bout an apple product to begin with.
Having fun in imagination land there?
Hey, doesn’t Apple share patent rights with Microsoft for the colors Blue, Yellow and Red? Lest we forget, those companies also own the rectangle, the alphabet, and a whole host of things that have come into common use. Consider their genius at discovering they deserved a patent for puttingh something inside of something, and other meta things that would otherwise would never have been known.
Steve Jobs died a rich control freak who benefited from the U.S. congress and the gang of lobbyists who have pushed dubious patents to be property for eternity.
Apple is the product of a control freak – get over it.
Apple has become what the rallied against in the beginning, big brother–the anti-competitive established mega-company that tries to squash any new competition in the market.