After blocking the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany and Australia, Apple is continuing its quest to squelch its iPad competition with a patent infringement lawsuit against Motorola over the Xoom Android tablet. Apple now says that the Xoom tablet, too, infringes on its registered EU Community Design for the iPad.
It filed its suit in German court, where just yesterday it won a preliminary injunction against the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 halting the launch of that device there.
Apple has been on a lawsuit spree of late, with ongoing disputes with Samsung around the world and a mounting list of issues with Motorola. There are four lawsuits and two ITC investigations in the U.S. pending over 40+ smartphone-related patents.
Like the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the Motorola Xoom is based on the Android 3.1 Honeycomb OS, and the two are widely considered by tech reviewers to be the only real competition to date to the iPad. While in many ways the two out-spec Apple’s market-leading device (cameras, memory, HD, Flash support), Apple has a big leg up when it comes to the number of tablet-optimized applications available in the App Store: The Android Market has less than half of the options for tablet users. Nonetheless, apparently Apple has decided that the high-end Android devices are getting a bit too close for comfort when it comes to its tablet turf.
The thing that has some industry watchers worried, however, is the nature of the alleged infringements — many of the complaints that Apple is filing have to do with basic tablet functionality, such as scrolling, pinching and zooming via a touchscreen. Should Apple be able to corner the market on such capabilities? Will these legal issues have a chilling effect on Android developers when it comes to writing for Honeycomb? These questions remain to be answered, but it’s clear that a philosophical showdown is in the making, despite the clear physical and OS-related differences between the iPad and its rivals.
“I guess anything that has a squarish rectangle-like design and is flat with a touchscreen apparently looks like the iPad and is worth suing over," wrote one Android Community blogger resignedly.
