OVER-REACHING LITIGATOR Apple has lost a patent lawsuit against a small Spanish company, allowing the firm to continue selling its tablet computer.
Apple filed the case a year ago when it obtained an injunction from a local court to ban imports of the NT-K tablet into Spain. However, according to court documents, the Spanish court has vacated the injunction, saying that there are no legal grounds to block sales of the device.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the NT-K tablet is made in China and sold in Europe by Nuevas Tecnologias y Energias Catala, based in the eastern Spanish region of Valencia.
The NT-K tablet runs a Spanish language version of Android written by Nuevas Tecnologias' programmers.
Meanwhile, Nuevas Tecnologias is complaining that it sold less than 200 units of the tablet this year, when it had a target of 15,000, saying that Apple is to blame. It reportedly plans to file a countersuit against Apple, and it wants compensation for damages, attorneys' fees and costs.
The latest patent battle is one of many Apple is fighting around the world. Samsung has been Apple's main target up until now, with so many lawsuits going on between the two that we have lost count. However, it's nice to see that sometimes, the little guy wins.
