Federal appeals court upholds injunction against Samsung in Apple patent battle News
Federal appeals court upholds injunction against Samsung in Apple patent battle
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[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) [official website] declined to lift an injunction [order, PDF] on Thursday against Samsung in its patent dispute with Apple [corporate websites] over Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] had granted [JURIST report] an injunction against Samsung blocking the sale of its Galaxy 10.1 tablet computer while the patent infringement case is reviewed, finding that Apple is likely to succeed on the merits in the litigation and would likely suffer irreparable harm if Samsung’s sale of its smartphone is not stopped immediately. The CAFC held that Samsung’s chance of succeeding on the merits was not large enough to lift the injunction. The CAFC also rejected [order, PDF] Samsung’s motion to expedite its appeal against Apple, saying that Samsung had not shown that the time for Apple to file its brief should be shortened.

Apple and Samsung have been embroiled in continuous patent litigation around the world. Two weeks ago, a UK court ruled [JURIST report] that Samsung tablets do not infringe on Apple’s design. Earlier in July, a federal judge issued an injunction [JURIST report] against Samsung to stop the sale of its Galaxy Nexus smartphone in the US. A week earlier, The CAFC had rejected [Bloomberg report; CAFC notice] Samsung’s appeal of the decision that remanded the case to the district court giving Apple another opportunity to ban Samsung’s Galaxy products in the states after it partially reversed [JURIST report] the district court’s refusal to grant a temporary injunction for Apple against Samsung. Apple’s request for a temporary injunction was denied [JURIST report] by the district court in December. Apple filed a suit [JURIST report] against Samsung in April of last year alleging that Samsung committed ten patent infringements, two trademark violations and two trade dress violations by copying iPhone and iPad technology in making its “Galaxy” products. In June, the District Court of The Hague ruled [JURIST report] in favor of Samsung against Apple holding that Apple was liable for infringing upon one of the Korean company’s four patents, a 3G patent.