On December 17, 2012, a US judge denied Apple Inc’s request for a permanent injunction against South Korean company Samsung’s smartphones. The recent move has deprived the US giant of key leverage in the mobile patent dispute battle that the two companies face.
In the month of August 2012, Apple was awarded damages worth $1.05 billion after a US jury found that Samsung had copied some critical features of the iPhone and iPad. Samsung products run on the Android operating system, which has been developed by Google.
After the verdict from the jury, a permanent sales ban was demanded by Apple against 26 Samsung smartphones. Most of the smartphones are of the older models and through the injunction it could potentially be extended to the newer Galaxy Products. The demand was directed by Apple towards the US District judge Lucy Koh in San Jose.
However, in a later order it was found that Apple did not have ample evidence to show that the patented features drove consumer demand for the entire iPhone. Koh wrote, “The phones at issue in this case contain a broad range of features, only a small fraction of which are covered by Apple’s patents”. Koh added that Apple has some interest to retain some features as exclusive to Apple, but that does not mean that the entire product must be banned forever from the market.
