[JURIST] A federal judge on Friday issued an injunction [order, PDF] against Samsung Electronics [corporate website] to stop the sale of its Galaxy Nexus smartphone in the US. Judge Lucy Koh for the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] found that Apple [corporate website] 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. She ordered the sale to stop until the case is reviewed, which is expected to be completed in 2014. Apple alleged that Samsung infringed four of its patents, including a feature called “Siri” found in its iPhone 4S that allows consumers to search across sources using a single interface. With the preliminary injunction, the judge ordered Apple to post a $96 million bond for the possibility that it does not prevail and the injunction is deemed to be wrongly issued. On the same day, the judge granted in part and denied in part [order, PDF] Apple’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment related to the patent infringement of the tablet computer. On Saturday denied in whole [order, PDF] Samsung’s Motion for Summary Judgment.

Apple and Samsung have been in continued litigation against each other alleging patent infringements. Last week, Koh already granted [JURIST report] an injunction against Samsung blocking the sale of its Galaxy 10.1 tablet computer while the patent infringement case is reviewed. This was a complete turn from her earlier decision rejecting Apple’s request for an injunction reasoning that the district court does not have jurisdiction to grant Apple’s motion for preliminary injunction and ban Samsung’s products because Samsung had appealed the decision [opinion, PDF] of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) [official website]. 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.