‘Disappointed’ Samsung Fights Apple Today In Dutch Court

Samsung and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) were set to square off in a court in the Netherlands on Wednesday, after a German court on Tuesday prevented the former from selling its newest Galaxy Tab everywhere else in Europe.

Samsung has given us a formal response to the German ruling. Unsurprisingly, it will be appealing the injunction decision:

The Dusseldorf court had slapped an injunction on Samsung while it works through the details of Apple’s iPad copycat lawsuit against the Korean consumer electronics giant.

“Samsung is disappointed with the court’s decision and we intend to act immediately to defend our intellectual property rights through the ongoing legal proceedings in Germany and will continue to actively defend these rights throughout the world.

“We will take all necessary measures to ensure Samsung’s innovative mobile communications devices are available to customers in Europe and around the world.

“This decision by the court in Germany in no way influences other legal proceedings filed with the courts in Europe and elsewhere.”

For now, the 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab continues to be sold in The Netherlands, but that could change fast. A decision could be published within a matter of days, or a couple of weeks at the most, notes the Dutch blog tweakers.net.

As we noted yesterday, this decision in Europe concerns design intellectual property, rather than patents. That will likely mean no kind of pricey licensing arrangement between the two companies can be reached, but even so, if things continue this way for Samsung it could end up costing the company greatly.

Ironically for Samsung, Europe is one region where it may have had a fighting chance for some good tablet marketshare, according to the analysts at Forrester. Yesterday, the company released a report that indicated that Apple’s iPad tablet may only end up with a 70 percent market share in Europe this year, compared to 80 percent in its home market of the U.S..