On Wednesday, a San Jose Federal judge didn’t rule in favor of Apple. As a result, Apple will not be entitled to its desired court-ordered sales ban on the nine Samsung smartphones that were found to violate iPhone’s patent rights.
The already fiercely contested case ended with the 42-page ruling of U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, who rejected Apple’s arguments. Apple had claimed that it would be irreparably harmed by Samsung smartphones as the mobile phone company is selling infringing smartphones on the United States market.
In May, Samsung received a ruling in which they had to pay $120 million in damages after having been pronounced guilty of copying iPhone technology. This was the second trial between the two tech titans that have been feuding since the smartphone era began. The panel did, however, reject many of Apple’s patent claims and also significantly reduced the damage award that the iPhone produced had been seeking.
Judge Koh has been presiding over the legal battle for the last four years, and ruled that Apple has already secured enough from Samsung in their smartphone and tablet battles. Consequently, the judge gave no permanent injunction on older lines of Samsung phones (including the Samsung Galaxy S3).
According to Judge Koh, Apple has failed to demonstrate the irreparable harm that Samsung’s exploitation of Apple patents has done. She explained that there was not enough evidence to prove that significant harm had been done in the form of lost sales or reputational injury on Apple’s part.
Experts now wonder if Apple won’t be settling with Samsung instead of pursuing the avenue of continued lawsuits against the smartphone manufacturer.
A recent settlement has been reached in the patent litigation case between Apple and Samsung from other countries. However, the feud in the United States seems to be far from over.
While Apple failed to comment on Judge Koh’s ruling, many believe that the patent battle will now be in the hands of the U.S. Federal Circuit of Appeals. In fact, the court is already reviewing an appeal made by Samsung of the first trial between them and Apple, during which Samsung had to pay $1billion in damages.
The second trial ruled that Samsung hat violated iPhone patents that included the slide-to-unlock feature.
Both companies are continuing to produce new lines of products and while Samsung has already unveiled the Galaxy S5 smartphone, Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone6 somewhere in September.
