Apple stops Samsung Tab 10.1 in Europe, now goes after Motorola's XOOM

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

After managing to stop the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia early this month, Apple has put a kibosh on the Tab's sale in Europe when a European court has blocked the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 across the European Union, in every member state except the Netherlands. Now, Apple has sued Motorola Mobility for various alleged patent infringements present in their Motorola XOOM tablet.

It is becoming clear that this isn't an Apple vs. Samsung or Apple vs. HTC or even an Apple vs. Motorola issue but an iOS vs Android issue.  The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Motorola XOOM are very similar in dimension, design and functionality. The Honeycomb OS, is the most obvious shared component between the two but while the XOOM is thicker and heavier, both devices share a lot of similarities.

It stands to reason that if Apple can confound the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in certain markets, then it should be able to block a tablet that is very similar in functionality and near identical in the operating system.

Apple makes both the hardware and the software in the iPad and it has numerous patents in these areas. It seems instead of suing Google for patent infringement on similarities of the operating system, which might be more involved, suing for hardware and design infringements. It will be interesting to see who else gets caught in this wave of litigation and how these iPad competitors will respond.