Small Spanish Firm Defeats Apple in iPad Patent Case

A Spanish court this week ruled in favor of a small Valencia-based company in a patent battle against Apple.

Cupertino sued the company, Nuevas Tecnologías y Energías Catalá, in November 2010, arguing that its Android-based NT-K tablet (pictured) was too similar in style to the iPad.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple obtained an injunction against Nuevas last year, which temporarily banned the importation of the NT-K, which is manufactured in China. It also filed criminal charges in December.

Today's decision lifts the injunction, but the ban resulted in sales of less than 200 tablets this year, down from a goal of 15,000, the company told the Journal.

As a result, Nuevas filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in August, arguing that what Apple did was "grossly unfair" given its market dominance, the company said in a translated statement. Patent expert Florian Mueller said in a blog post that the company is also suing Apple for monetary damages, lost profits, and "moral damages."

As Mueller noted, the ruling is significant because Apple made the same argument in this case that it did in Germany and the Netherlands against Samsung. The German court sided with Apple, allowing atemporary ban on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 to continue. Dutch officials denied Apple's tablet request, but allowed a Galaxy S smartphone ban.

"Considering that this was not a case of product piracy but just a dispute over whether or not Apple has exclusive design rights covering NT-K's Android-based products, I think it's absolutely outrageous that Apple tried to attack its rival under criminal law," he wrote. "Having a commercial dispute is one thing, but going down the criminal law avenue is totally unreasonable."

Apple has apparently targeted a number of other smaller companies on similar grounds, Mueller said, but they settled rather than battle Cupertino. Apple has also been fighting Samsung since April, when it sued Samsung for copying the look and feel of its iPhone and iPad in its flagship Galaxy S line of devices. The battle has since expanded to about two dozen countries. Most recently, an Italian courtdenied Samsung's request to ban the iPhone 4S in the country.