After 30 filed suits between them over the past eight months, Apple lost its appeal to extend a ban on the sale of Samsung Galaxy tablets in Australia.  Samsung has made sales of more than 300 million units this year for mobile handsets, surprising not only competitors such as Apple but also Samsung, itself.  Apple’s plethora of patent infringement lawsuits increased shortly after the company’s success skyrocketed and other tech companies started to jump on the tablet bandwagon. As we reported on the BLLAWG in August,  Apple accused Samsung of blatantly copying their unique designs which were vital to the iPad’s leading market success. In return, Samsung claimed “prior art” from movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey. So far Apple is winning this war… or are they?

Throughout it all, Samsung has been less than quiet about how they feel about Apple responding to the ruling that it “confirms our long-held view that Apple’s arguments lack merit.”  Samsung is confident that they have given a substantial amount of evidence that the validity of many of Apple’s design patents should be reexamined and reevaluated.

While Apple was able to defer Samsung’s disputed tablet from hitting the shelves during the Australian holiday season, Samsung representatives confidently claim that they will enjoy similar success in the upcoming year.  After market share for Samsung increased seventeen percent with Apple falling by twenty percent once the Samsung tablet was released, Samsung could very well be having the successful year they hope for in 2012.