Australian retailer moves operations outside court’s jurisdiction, won’t bow down to Apple

Following a temporary injunction on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, retailers say they aren’t prepared to back down despite legal threats from Apple and will continue selling the device by setting up new entities outside the “jurisdiction of Australian courts”, according to a report from The Sydney Morning Herald.

One retailer, dMavo, is even reorganizing their online operations and setting up an entirely new entity elsewhere in Europe to push the tablets, saying they’re ready for a “cat and mouse game” with Apple:

“We have a new entity established and a separate server – just to deal with the tablet orders – that is undergoing testing as of last Saturday…Was Apple just bluffing or do they really want to play the cat and mouse game?- dMavo managing director Wojtek Czarnocki.

It appears the move is paying off for the retailer on the short term with Czarnocki noting their  servers were “almost collapsing on a number of occasions” as demand for the tablet and press from the retailer’s stance against Apple starts to receive attention.

Mark Summerfield, senior associate and patent specialist at a Melbourne law firm, told SMH he is unsure if the move to restructure the online sales of the device will protect the retailer from any wrongdoing related to patent infringement and the pending litigation between Apple and Samsung in Australia:

“Moving the business unit, and the servers, offshore does not absolve them of liability for patent infringement in Australia. The acts of selling to Australian purchasers, and importing infringing products into the country, remain actionable as infringements.”

Samsung is slated to appeal the temporary injunction in a hearing on November 25 in Federal Court. Given dMavo’s bold stance against Apple, it’s likely they will ignore legal threats and continue their online operations until at least after the appeal. Before removing it this weekend, dMavo had the following message to Apple posted on their order page for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (via MacRumors):

Cross-posted on 9to5Mac.com