I love it when the little guy wins and this really is a case of the little guy coming out on top. It seems that Apple would like to strengthen its strangle hold on the tablet market by almost any means necessary. As part of their campaign for global domination Apple went after a small Spanish tablet maker by the name of Nuevas Tecnologías y Energías Catalá or as you and I might know them NT-K. They are the designers/makers of an Android based tablet that admittedly looks a lot like the iPad at first glance. Because of this similarity (and because they had success in the EU and Australia against Samsung) Apple filed an indictment against NK-T and actually had shipments of their products seized by customs.

Because this was a customs ban for “copying” a product this caused NK-T to be temporarily put on a list of product pirates, which would cause an almost global ban on these products entering any country.Now Apple has used these tactics and the threat of these actions against other companies with success so they have gotten into something of a pattern. Apple fully expected NK-T to comply with their demands and stop manufacturing the competing product. When NK-T did not they sprang into action and filed their indictment against them.

Now in many other countries our story would have ended with the small company sadly having to stop making their product. However, this time the courts did not see things Apple’s way. In a ruling they found that Apple failed to prove criminal intent or their allegation of deliberate piracy. On top of that NK-T has filed a civil suit asking for damages done to their business and the name of their company. Furthermore they have filed a complaint with Spain’s regulatory body (the Comisión Nacional de la Competencia (CNC)) against Apple for abusive anticompetitive behavior. If this complaint goes through (and it has not been dropped) then it will set a precedent and one that could bolster the defenses/ complaints of other companies that are currently in the legal slime with Apple right now.

We are making attempts to find out more on this and will be following up as it progresses.

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