Judge Rules Against Apple's Request to Ban Samsung Devices
A post on CNET reports the latest development in the ongoing courtroom war between Apple and Samsung. Judge Lucy Koh has denied Apple’s request to ban the sale 23 Samsung-made devices that infringe on its patents, saying that the company “has not established that it is entitled to the permanent injunction it seeks.”
One of the main reasons for the denial, writes Judge Koh, is that Apple has failed to prove that the infringements have caused “irreparable harm” to the company. There are three patents in question here: the “pinch-to-zoom” patent, the “double-tap-to-zoom” patent, and the “snap back” patent, the last of which referring to when a user scrolls beyond the edge of a screen or document, and the display “snaps back” into place.
While the decision doesn’t claim that Samsung hasn’t infringed on Apple’s patent—everyone seems to pretty much agree that it has—it does seem that Apple’s lawyers shot for the moon in seeking the ban of 23 of Samsung’s devices and failed to make a good argument as to why that ban should take place. In short, infringement just isn’t enough.
Judge Koh writes in the decision:
“To persuade the Court to grant Apple such an extraordinary injunction—to bar such complex devices for incorporating three touchscreen software features—Apple bears the burden to prove that these three touchscreen software features drive consumer demand for Samsung’s products. Apple has not met this burden.”
The CNET post points out, though, that Samsung still owes Apple another $290 million in damages for the infringement. So while it can still sell all 23 of those smartphones and tablets, it still has to pay a huge check to its tech rival.
It’ll be interesting to see if the two companies can ever get past this ongoing legal drama. There was some hope earlier this year that Apple and Samsung could work things out in mediation, but reports came through last month that the talks had broken down without anything resembling a solution.