Spanish Tablet Maker Fights Apple Ban

　　A small Spanish tablet company won a rare victory over tech giant Apple, indicating project ban injunctions aren't always permanent.

　　Spanish tablet maker Nuevas Tecnologias y Energias Catala, or NT-K, successfully appealed an injunction from a local court banning its tablet from sale from China. NT-K's tablets can now return to that market for sale to consumers.

　　NT-K founding partner Pedro David Pelaez said the ban, enacted in 2010, was part of an Apple push to "keep as many tablets from entering the market as possible."

　　NT-K's successful appeal may give hope to much-larger company Samsung, whose Galaxy Tab 10.1 is banned from launching in Australia thanks to Apple's injunction request.

　　Samsung is appealing the ban and filed a countersuit to block the iPhone 4S from launching, but has not been generally successful in its worldwide patent battles against Apple.

　　Unlike Samsung, NT-K is extremely small, so its victory is a David vs. Goliath win that may concern Apple as it wages battles against much larger competitors.

　　"We're nothing; let's be realistic. I don't think they were looking just for us, but the sum of all of us together was something," said Pelaez, referring to other tablet makers, including Samsung.

　　Samsung has, however, won some small victories against Apple. For example, last week, the Australian courts agreed to let the company fast-track its appeal against the Galaxy ban, which the South Korean company says may block the tablet from ever launching in that country.

　　Typically, courts don't order product bans as part of a patent battle, although many companies threaten bans to force settlements. In the NT-K case, and in the Samsung block, the ordered bans weren't permanent but took the form of injunctions that blocked the product sales until a full trial.

　　But with products launching so quickly, even a ban of only a few months may mean a tablet becomes obsolete in the months it takes for the injunction to lift.

　　NT-K says it lost a great deal of money during the time its tablet was banned and is suing Apple for alleged anti-competitive behavior, seeking compensation for its losses.

　　Pelaez told Reuters said the company predicted, before the legal problems started, it would sell 15,000 tablets this year, totaling between $6 and 7 million in sales.

　　NT-K is also seeking restoration of its reputation. After the Spanish court ordered the injunction, the company's shipments from China were seized and its name was placed on an EU-wide list of product pirates, which NT-K says ruined its reputation.

　　The courts may not compensate NT-K for its losses, but the small company's victory shows that while Apple is extremely powerful, it may not always be successful in its claims that competitors copy its patents, especially as more tablets and smartphones launch worldwide.