Samsung Wins The Right To March Trial In Bid To Ban iPhone 4S In Australia

One more development in the legal fight between Samsung and Apple: a court in Australia has granted a March date for a case being brought by Samsung against Apple for patent infringement, with Samsung’s aim being to get the iPhone 4S banned from sale, unless the two sides reach a licensing settlement.

Samsung has been banned in Australia from selling its 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab, an Android tablet, after Apple successfully got an injunction on the device in October on the grounds that it infringed its patents. Before that, the device had already been held back from sales voluntarily by Samsung until the case got resolved. That case is still making its way through the courts, but it looks like Samsung will have missed the crucial holiday sales season for the tablet. Samsung is hoping to gain some leverage in what looks like a grim situation for the company in Australia by counterattacking Apple with its own claims of patent infringements. The justice presiding over the various Samsung/Apple suits in the country, Annabelle Bennett, agreed to a March date for Samsung’s trial. That doesn’t sound like it’s coming very soon, but it is significantly earlier than August, which is when Apple hoped the case would be heard. That will also mean that the Australian case will come before the judges before a similar case gets heard in the United States, likely in May.