Apple was denied a permanent sales ban on 26 Samsung products in a court filing made this evening by Judge Lucy Koh. The products Apple sought to permanently ban were part of an August court decision that said Samsung infringed on some of Apple’s patents.
The Verge notes that, in making her ruling on Monday evening, Koh wrote:
… this Court has already performed significant irreparable harm analysis in this case.”
She added that Apple was not able to establish the case for a permanent injunction on Samsung’s 26 products, adding that Apple will need to prove that the infringing features were directly driving the “consumer demand for the accused product” in order to obtain the permanent ban on their rival’s products.
Koh presided over the whole trial between the tech giants and denied the ban because the features were part of a larger feature set, notes CNet . Koh added:
“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. Though Apple does have some interest in retaining certain features as exclusive to Apple, it does not follow that entire products must be forever banned from the market because they incorporate, among their myriad of features, a few narrow protected functions.”
The decision by Koh to deny Apple a permanent sales ban on the Samsung products is a setback to Apple and a success for Samsung — though the judge also denied a retrial request by Samsung. There will be at least one more ruling made by Koh in the current trial, this time about the amount Samsung must pay to Apple. The two companies argued during a hearing earlier this month; Samsung asked for a lower fine while Apple sought to have it raised.
