BREAKING: Apple Inc has failed in its application to have the High Court of Australia overturn the decision of the Federal Court to allow Samsung to commence the sale of its Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Apple had sought special leave to appeal the Federal Court’s decision, but the High Court dismissed Apple’s application this morning and reportedly awarded costs to Samsung.

In the High Court today Apple’s lawyers argued that the original judge had accurately interpreted the law when banning the sale of the Galaxy Tab. They said the full bench decision to overturn the ban was “replete with error”.

One of the judges today said Apple obtained the original ban by the “skin of its teeth”, as Samsung was effectively punished for refusing to agree to an early final hearing. Apple conceded that there was a “prospect of irredeemable harm” to both Samsung and Apple in this case.

Samsung’s lawyers argued the full bench of the Federal Court was correct to overturn the ban as no “substantive analysis” of the strength of Apple’s case had occurred in the original hearing. Apple said Justice Bennett appropriately “traversed through the arguments from either side” and argued the ban should be reinstated.

The High Court today agreed with Samsung and the judges said Apple’s special leave would be “denied with costs”.

After the hearing, Samsung told Ausdroid:

As the High Court has today rejected Apple’s leave to appeal, Samsung Electronics Australia is pleased to announce the highly anticipated Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1 will be available in stores in time for the Christmas shopping period from a RRP of $579 (16GB WiFi variant) and a RRP of $729 (16GB 3G variant).

Samsung Electronics Australia is pleased with today’s judgment by the High Court of Australia to deny Apple’s request to appeal the decision of the Full Court.

The Full Court of Australia decision on November 30 clearly affirmed our view that Apple’s claims lack merit and that an injunction should not have been imposed on the GALAXY Tab 10.1.

We’ll up date this post with more info once it comes to hand.

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Grunger

Woohoo! Take that Apple!

“Injunction obtained by the skin of the teeth”….my god, only because Judge Bennett punished Samsung for dragging it feet? So rather than listening to the fact, she used her irritation to slap the injunction on Samsung. Could she do that??

Harry Johnson

Is there gonna be a 32gb model????

Sandman

I’ve been told JB Hi-Fi will start to sell them next week.

Milty C

The big winners of this saga are the grey market importers who have been able to charge a premium for this tablet in Australia due to a lack of competition. Im guessing it cost me an extra $100 when i bought my tab 10.1 a few weeks ago.

I dont regret the purchase though. The tab 10.1  is an excellent tablet especially since the 3.2 update. I love using it compared to my relatively slow nexus s.

Alex Gerontzos

Ha how bout them apples… cop that on the chin.

Sean Kavanagh

Sadly with the Transformer Prime on the way this is now last years Tablet.  It will need more competitive pricing than that to get it moving as most people who really wanted it would have bought it in the grey market months back.

Great for them to get a win at last but sadly the damage has been done in this round.

Anonymous

True that. I’m holding out for the Prime now.

PseudoEdge

Agreed, I look forward to the prime. My first tablet…

Anonymous

Those prices look familiar…..
http://store.apple.com/au/browse/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad/select

iPad2 – Wifi 16GB – $579

iPad2 – 3G 16GB – $729
haha, oh wow.

Anonymous

Sammy even copies the RRP? Geez.

NOZ

So sad its taken this long but this is definately something to celebrate. I might still buy one…but this lost sales cost shouldn’t really be some icing on the cake if it comes to fruitition. Backfire for Apple hopefully. Its about time someone gets something back from Apple. I imagine the lost sales could be substantial. But would be another matter for courts to decided. And no doubt apple will take its time on that too!

Anonymous

Hopefully “costs” include lost sales as well as court costs!

Daniel Tyson

With Costs is the key word here!!

gambit

just in time for xmas, “the tablet, that Apple doesn’t want sold” – you can’t pay for advertising like this 

guest

If you word it like that Apple will have another reason to sue again. but from Marketing point of view its probably the best lines

Anonymous

Will be interesting to see what price they actually hit the shelves for … assuming they get there…