Samsung device bans reconsidered in Apple patent case

A ruling has been passed down today by an appeals court which says U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh must spend more time considering evidence offered by Apple in arguments that certain Samsung devices should be banned from sale. In this ruling, the appeals court currently working on the case agreed unanimously that Koh "made errors" in her denial of Apple's request for a court injunction against 26 Samsung products.

If Koh did reconsider her own judgement and decided to ban any of the 26 devices in question, it'd be likely that these devices would not be available for sale anywhere in the United States until the court proceeded to overturn any further patent judgements. Given past rulings related to these devices, it could be anywhere between a few weeks to a few months before they'd be offered up for sale again.

The appeals court ruled unanimously that U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, Calif., made errors last year when she denied Apple's request for a court injunction against 26 Samsung products.

The court said parts of Judge Koh's ruling against Apple were correct, but it said the judge should spend more time considering evidence offered by the iPhone maker to support arguments that Apple is being irreparably harmed by Samsung's patent infringement.

The quote above comes from the Wall Street Journal where the note appears to have been handed down as of today. This ruling comes as part of a continuing case that also saw Apple's Phil Schiller take the stand last week.

Schiller suggested during his time on the stand that Samsung "weakened the view that the world has for Apple" and that because of Samsung's releases of their full Galaxy smartphone and tablet line, users around the world "question [Apple's] innovation and design skills in a way that people never used to."

Stay tuned as we find out what Koh decides in the re-consideration of temporary banning of a number of Samsung products. Of note is the fact that most of these products have been out in stores for months or years, while only a few are part of today's headliner device lineup.