Despite the fact that Federal Court Judge Justice Bennett has not yet given a full and final ruling in the Apple Vs Samsung patent case Florian Mueller, an intellectual property analyst is predicting doom and gloom for the Android platform in Australia.Writing on his blog, Mueller said: that after Justice Bennett’s recent decision that prevents Samsung selling their 10.1″ Galaxy Tablet in Australia untill a full hearing in November 2011 “no company in the industry be able to launch any new Android-based touchscreen product in Australia anytime soon without incurring a high risk of another interim injunction”.
Mueller says the two patents that he is basing his claim on are Australian Patent No. 2005246219 on a ‘multipoint touchscreen’ and Australian Patent No. 2009233675 on a ‘touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics’.
He claims the patent is the Australian equivalent of a US software patent that lists Steve Jobs as the first inventor (of many).”
He went on to claim “Whether Apple will aggressively pursue all other new Android product launches in Australia in the near term remains to be seen. At this point, Apple is in litigation with Samsung, Motorola and HTC, which are the three leading Android device makers. I believe any new Australian product launches by those vendors will be at considerable risk to say the least.
“But Apple may decide to focus on a few disputes since any action against other companies than the ‘big three’ would only increase the number of companies trying to bring counterclaims against Apple in different parts of the world, and Apple’s legal department is already plenty busy.” he said.
