Apple Seek Samsung Tablet Ban

Kogan must stop flogging Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 in its home country after Apple threatened to sue it.Apple's pursuit of Samsung and its hardware is well documented and has clocked up a lot of airmiles. In this latest win the fruit themed firm has forced a company that offers its own competing product to stop selling a competitor's product. Something that presumably says a lot about free trade.

A legal dispute between Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. in Australia intensified Monday, with an attorney representing the maker of the iPad alleging its South Korean rival's product infringes on patents relating to touch-screen technology. The case is part of a global battle between the two companies that began in April, when Apple sued Samsung in California, saying its smartphones and tablets had "slavishly" copied the iPhone and iPad. The companies have since filed suits against one another in Germany, Japan, France and South Korea.

Apple has demanded that the company stop selling and advertising the 10.1in tablet and tell it who it bought them from. Kogan complied with the first demand, but not the latter one, according to the report.that is not to say that it has taken the demands gently, however, and the firm suggested that Apple was using its muscle to stifle competition, something that might prick up some ears with the relevant regulators.

"There is a fine line between legitimately enforcing your intellectual property on the one hand, and just trying to stifle competition on the other - in our view Apple is very precariously walking that line," said David Shafer, Kogan's executive director, in a statement released to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Although the firm thinks it is within its legal rights to offer the tablets to consumers, as it acts as something of a middle man and makes the purchaser the importer, it seems unwilling to get too deep into talks with Apple's lawyers and for now it is taking a softly softly approach to dealing with them."If you decide to pursue the injunction, we will leave these matters to the court and we believe that our case is strong," wrote Shafer in a letter to Apple's Australian lawyers. µ