“Yesterday I reported on a Spanish court proceeding involving Apple’s iPad-related Community design and a small Spanish company named Nuevas Tecnologías y Energías Català marketing Android-based tablets under its NT-K brand,” Florian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents.
“I did my initial reporting based on NT-K’s corporate blog post and reports in reputable Spanish media such as Expansión,” Mueller reports. “In addition, I have talked to people in the industry and received help from someone tracking down the Spanish court document that notified the general public of the dismissal of the case. Based on what the document says, I think the implications of this case for Apple’s enforcement of its design-related rights are probably much less wide-ranging than it initially appeared.”
Mueller reports, “It seems that even in Spain Apple could still assert its iPad design-related rights under civil law. Also, the nature of Apple’s involvement may have been limited to that of an initial complainant (who according to NT-K also filed an indictment) as opposed to that of a party litigating a case all the way through. That’s what my sources say, and it’s possible… A criminal case can be dismissed because there was no wrongdoing, but it can also be dismissed if the court didn’t consider the facts to meet the criteria for a criminal act, which includes a criminal intent. In other words, a finding of no crime is not the same as a finding of no infringement of a valid intellectual property right.”
Much more in the full article here.
Related article:
Apple loses iPad design lawsuit against small Spanish tablet computer maker NT-K – November 2, 2011