The 2-1 vote court ruling this Thursday claimed that the Galaxy smartphone-maker infringed patents of the iPhone’s slide-to-unlock and auto-correct features.
Advertisement
As any keen patent observer knows, the Supreme Court’s 2006 decision in eBay v MercExchange cut back markedly on injunctions in patent suits. Samsung said it would be asking that the issue be considered by every active judge of the Federal Circuit, since it was a decision that was not unanimous. Apple didn’t want to ban Samsung phones that included the infringing features, it just wanted Samsung to delete those features.
The case was sent back to a federal district court in San Jose, California, to reconsider the injunction. Rather, it’s enough to show they had some impact on consumer decisions.
Apple reiterated its previous comments about the case, saying: “Samsung wilfully stole our ideas and copied our products”. “We are fighting to defend the hard work that goes into beloved products like the iPhone, which our employees devote their lives to designing and delivering to our customers”.
Ltd. (LON:BC94) patent war is not yet over, and now the former has won an injunction against a few of the Korean firm’s older devices.
This battle in the court between Samsung and Apple was a long running one which finally gave Apple a leg up over the Samsung.
Moore wrote that allowing Samsung continued use of Apple’s features deprives Apple of its “exclusivity” and forces it “to compete against its own innovation usurped by its largest and fiercest competitor”.
The PS4 beat console rival the Xbox One, as well as virtual reality headsets Oculus Rift Crescent Bay and Samsung Gear VR. She described Apple’s patents in question as related to “minor features”. Apple has been ordered to pay $450 million.
KitGuru Says: Apple and Samsung are a unusual pair. That’s according to a report on Bloomberg, which said that the ruling could see certain Samsung devices banned unless the features are disabled.
In a split decision, the Federal Circuit has rejected the lower court’s holding – vacated and remanded. Results were mixed for the ‘721 “slide to unlock” patent, with some Samsung devices, such as the Galaxy Nexus, found to infringe, and others found not to.
So Apple won – but not much more than a Pyrrhic victory.
Advertisement
Apple’s iPad Air 2, which was not updated this year during Apple’s recent press event, was also named Laptop or Tablet of the Year. Apple immediately appealed that ruling.
