[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [official website] on Thursday rejected a request by Apple to ban sales of the Samsung [corporate websites] Galaxy Nexus smartphone based on allegations of willful patent infringements. The Federal Circuit rejected [Reuters report] Apple’s request to have the entire court reconsider imposing a ban Samsung’s smartphone before trial commences in March 2014. Apple sought a reversal of an earlier ruling [JURIST report] by a three-judge panel in favor of Samsung. The Federal Circuit declined to reconsider the case without explanation.

On Wednesday, the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled [JURIST report] that Samsung did not willfully infringe Apple patents. If Samsung was found to have willfully infringed Apple’s patents, the $1.05 billion jury verdict [JURIST report] against it could have been increased up to triple that amount [35 USC § 284 text]. The judge’s ruling partially abrogates the jury verdict, which had found that Samsung willfully infringed five of Apple’s seven asserted patents. Last month Apple agreed to withdraw claims [JURIST report] against a Samsung product that Samsung asserts has never been sold in the US in the second of the two patent infringement cases [case materials] taking place in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.