Samsung pulls tablet PC from trade show amid row

SEOUL – South Korea’s Samsung Electronics said Monday it has withdrawn its new tablet computer from a major electronics fair in Berlin after a German court accepted a complaint from US rival Apple.

Samsung Sunday removed its Galaxy Tab 7.7 inch from the annual IFA show following an order Friday from a district court in Duesseldorf banning sales and marketing, a company spokesman told AFP.

“Samsung respects the court’s decision… and therefore decided not to display any more the Galaxy Tab 7.7 in the IFA,” the company said in a statement.

Samsung however vowed to take “all available measures, including legal options” to defend its presence in the European market, saying the court ruling “severely limits consumer choice in Germany”.

Friday’s move by the Duesseldorf court follows an interim ban in late August on German sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1. That ban remains in force until the court makes its final ruling on Friday.

Samsung — the world’s second-biggest mobile phone maker — is embroiled in a series of patent lawsuits with Apple over designs and technologies in their smartphone and tablet computers.

Apple, in complaints filed to courts in several countries, requested a ban on the selling and marketing of Samsung smartphones and tablet PCs, which it said had “slavishly” copied Apple’s market-leading iPhone and iPad.

Samsung has launched counter-suits, claiming Apple infringed its wireless technologies.