While issuing an injunction, the US District Court Judge Lucy Koh barred Samsung from the sale and development of smartphones in the US, which make use of the patent owned by Apple. In 2014, even Samsung and Apple chose to bury their hatchet though they also agreed to let the two cases pending in courts continue until their eventual conclusion.
Advertisement
This includes the Admire, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S2, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, Galaxy S3, and Stratosphere.
It looks like Apple has finally managed to get a sales ban on some of Samsung’s phone features that infringe on Apple’s patents.
Apple’s victory today is a big one for the company who has been fighting this tooth and nail since probably before 2012, but the big picture is that it just doesn’t matter any more as the offending phones from Samsung are no longer in circulation. Samsung has 30 days before those phones need to be pulled from shelves, but the “quick links” patent actually expires on February 1, which is less than two weeks away.
The implication for other smartphone and tablet makers is that Apple can win injunctions related to a very focused set of features, or aspects of features, in what Mr. Mueller called “highly multi-function products”.
The ruling is the latest and hopefully one of the last turns in the long-running patent wars between Apple and Samsung.
As for the current “three patent infringement case”, it seems that the court has taken neutral decision in favor of both companies. Despite the disputes, Samsung chips and displays are also used in Apple devices. The ability to block use of an invention is a powerful tool that increases the price tag when the creator negotiates settlements. Attention is now focusing on whether the US Supreme Court will accept an appeal filed by Samsung in December.
Samsung has released a hardware update to the Galaxy Note 5.
Google, Facebook, Dell, HP, eBay, Vizio and others sided with Samsung in a friend-of-the-court brief this week for the second time, urging the nation’s highest court to hear the case.
Advertisement
The Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals previous year rejected Samsung’s arguments in a ruling largely backing Apple – leaving the Supreme Court as the only legal option left for Samsung to try to overturn the adverse jury verdict.
