A top Australian barrister said it would be a "herculean effort" to shut down the online sales, while a former cybercrime police officer said injunctions were "meaningless" without cross-border legal co-operation and enforcement. Yesterday it was revealed that Australians were making a mockery of Justice Annabelle Bennett's temporary ban on Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales by ordering the device from eBay and other online sellers, including several in Australia. The ban is part of a patent feud between Apple and Samsung that is set to go to a full hearing next year. Samsung said yesterday it was appealing against the decision to ban the Galaxy Tab 10.1 until the full hearing takes place. "Obviously I am very disappointed if it is true that there are overseas retailers able to get around the injunction, because that's no good for the integrity of the case," Mr McIntosh said. "I would hope that both Samsung and Apple's legal teams were to address any breach of the injunction."

Patent law experts and industry figures said yesterday that only local retailers were disadvantaged by the injunction, as consumers could buy the device anyway and Samsung was still able to make the sales. "It's not fair if the Australian retailers are the only ones that are suffering - it highlights the bigger issue at hand which is that overseas retailers aren't playing by the same rules as the locals," Mr McIntosh said. Dick Smith declined to comment. Apple and Samsung also declined to comment at the time of writing. Separately, Samsung also yesterday sued Apple in retaliation to the tablet ban, saying it was seeking to block sales of the new iPhone 4S and that Apple was "free riding" on its technology. The case went to a directions hearing this morning, with Judge David Yates expressing his desire to pass the case on to Justice Bennett for an interlocutory hearing tentatively set to occur in the second half of next month. Australian barrister Greg Barns, national president of the Australian Lawyers Alliance, pointed out that the injunction on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was still a "limited order" - a temporary ban that would be in place until Apple's claims and Samsung's cross-claim were heard on a final basis, which most likely would not be until about March year.

"It is very difficult for the courts to police individuals' purchases over the internet and it would take a herculean effort and a major allocation of resources to try and herd into court individuals who bought the Galaxy Tab 10.1 online," Mr Barns told Fairfax Media. Nigel Phair, a former cyber cop turned private computer security consultant, said the only winners out of the patent battles were the lawyers. Samsung and Apple are suing each other in more than 20 cases in 10 countries. He said injunctions did not stop hordes of online sellers from offering the product via international jurisdictions. "Policing such an injunction is very resource-intensive and impractical," Mr Phair said. "A global protocol, backed up by a global court, is required to address criminal cyber crimes as well as civil matters such as this one. A United Nations endorsed cyberspace treaty should help nations develop a common understanding of all aspects of cyber security including matters which impact on economic development, such as this example.

"Without such cross-border legal co-operation and enforcement such injunctions are meaningless." Apple has been able to use legal threats to stop at least one Australian seller, Kogan.com.au, from selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1. However, other sellers of the device have already indicated that they would not succumb to such threats. Mr McIntosh said that, while the Galaxy Tab 10.1 had been expected to sell like hot cakes in the lead-up to Christmas, the tablet market in general was going "gangbusters" and there was a strong line-up of Google Android-based offerings coming over the rest of the year. "The Android market is very, very healthy even without Samsung," he said. Loading

But new figures suggest that Android tablets are not selling that well after all. BusinessInsider.com reports there are only 3.4 million tablets running Google Android in the marketplace. By comparison, Apple is expected to reveal that it has sold 10 million iPads in the September quarter when it announces its earnings this week. This reporter is on Twitter: @ashermoses