17 October 2012Patents

Apple vs Samsung: judge removes Galaxy sales ban

Samsung can begin selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the US again after a judge removed a ban on the tablet following the company’s high-profile patent trial with Apple.

Judge Lucy Koh had issued a rare preliminary injunction on the product in June, saying it probably infringed a design patent on Apple’s iPad. But she reversed the decision on October 1, after a jury found in August that the tablet did not violate Apple’s IP.

“The jury has found otherwise,” she said in the order from the US District Court Northern District of California. “Thus, the sole basis for the June 26 preliminary injunction no longer exists.”

In the trial over which Koh presided and in which a jury ordered Samsung to pay Apple $1.05 billion in damages for infringing six patents—the Galaxy Tab’s design patent was held to be legitimate.
After that verdict, Samsung immediately appealed against the sales ban on the tablet. Koh initially referred the request to the US Court of Appeals, which later allowed her to rule on the matter on September 28.

In her ruling three days later Koh refused to give Samsung the $2.6 million Apple had posted in June, saying post-verdict legal motions from the August trial must be completed first. In these motions, Samsung claims the jury used flawed reasoning when ruling against it, while Apple is seeking to raise the damages by about $433 million. The judge expects to hear these motions in December this year.

After Koh lifted the sales ban, Samsung said in a statement: “We are pleased with the court’s action, which vindicates our position that there was no infringement of Apple’s design patent and that an injunction was not called for.”

Only days after the decision, Samsung added five claims against Apple’s iPhone 5 to an existing lawsuit in California that covers earlier iPhone models. The South Korean firm claims the smartphone infringes patents on inventions such as synchronising photos, and capturing and sending videos over the Internet.

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