Appeals court: Apple should have been granted Samsung ban

Apple may have won its highest profile patent case against Samsung, but anyone who has been monitoring its developments would know that the war is far from over. Apple was indeed granted a hefty sum amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, but District Judge Lucy Koh denied its injunction to have Samsung's infringing devices banned from sales in the country. Now a federal appeals court, ruling 2-1, says that the injunction should have been granted, once again putting Samsung's smartphones in danger in the US.

When Judge Koh ruled on the injunction, she said that Apple failed to prove that it would have suffered irreparable harm from the continued development and sales of Samsung's infringing devices. The appeals court begs to differ, saying that Apple satisfied all legal requirements in that area. Conversely, the court actually says that it is Samsung who won't suffer irreparable harm from the ban since it can just remove the infringing parts.

Whether that is factually true remains to be seen. One of the three patents that Samsung has been found guilty of infringing is the slide to unlock patent, now a common feature in any smartphone. While that patent, and software patents in general, have been the subject of much criticism, sometimes even reviews, that particular patent still stands. At least in the US. In Germany, it has been invalidated by the country's high court.

Still, the US appeals court ruled that Apple is entitled to the sales ban, a subject that will be a matter for the San Jose district court to reconsider. The appeals court says that Apple's request is narrow and applies only to a specific set of devices and nothing life essential. That said, the decision could still have repercussions down the line, all the way up to Samsung's more recent devices. The Korean manufacturer is obviously none to happy about the decision and will make its appeal in front of the whole Federal Circuit judges.

SOURCE: Reuters