Ban on Samsung Tablet Lifted in U.S.

Suddenly, there's one more tablet for consumers to consider. Even though it has been on the market for quite a while, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is now available to U.S. consumers for the first time in more than a year.

That's because a federal court in California has lifted the temporary sales ban, obtained by Apple, that had kept the tablet out of the hands of U.S. consumers. Apple received the injunction after claiming the device infringed on patented technology.

The court previously found in Apple's favor in its patent dispute against Samsung and imposed a $1 billion fine against the Korean electronics firm.

"We are pleased with the court's action today, which vindicates our position that there was no infringement of Apple's design patent and that an injunction was not called for," Samsung said in a statement.

The ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was put in place before Apple's patent suit against Samsung went to trial. While the jury found that Samsung had violated Apple's patents in a number of its devices, it said the Galaxy 10.1 had not violated an Apple design patent as charged, which was the basis for the injunction banning Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales in the U.S.

Back to court

Samsung went back to court and argued that the ban on the tablet should be lifted. And that's not all.

Samsung this week filed a motion in court claiming that Apple's new iPhone 5 violates Samsung patents. The company indicated it is considering a suit aiming to block the sale of the iPhone 5 in the U.S.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is an Android tablet introduced in February 2011, a year after the the first iPad. It comes in two models -- both both featuring a 1 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM and a 3-axis MPU-3050 gyroscope from InvenSense. It's a full-sized tablet with a 10-inch screen.

Apple targeted the tablet soon after it was released. In August 2011 a German court temporarily banned sales in the European Union. A U.S. court imposed the U.S. sales ban in June 2012.

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