In a ruling that will be viewed as a victory and a loss at the same time, Apple’s bid to block the sale of Samsung Electronics Galaxy Tab was received, but other applications in which Apple had asked that the sale of Samsung smartphones be stopped was rejected.
In the court case, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) had accused Samsung of copying its patented designs, for the iPad and iPhone. The federal circuit of the Use Court of Appeals ruled that a California judge had been too hasty in making a decision to deny Apple the permission to block the sales of Samsung tablets while Apple was having a patent infringement against it in court. The patent case accused Samsung of copying critical designs elements from its products.
The three judge panel in the federal court was of the opinion that the judge in California had been wrong to assume that a single patent related to the iPad was inconsequential. The court also opined that the famed iPhone company would suffer a lot of harm from sales of the tablets that were infringing on Apple patents.
The trial judge was therefore asked to consider the judgment of whether the tablets from Samsung should be blocked while the patent case from Apple is continuing. In fact, one judge at the sitting said that sales of the Galaxy tablet should be stopped immediately, so that further harm to Apple may be stopped.
However, the court of appeal supported a number of arguments from Samsung, and other requests from Apple that were based on three other different patents- to block sales were denied. The ruling was made in a 34 page summary that was greeted with great aplomb from Apple’s legal team.
The two giant phone makers are embroiled in a battle around the world based on patent infringement and accusations that phone, IPhone, iPad, tab, and Smartphone models were copied from one to the other. In this latest war, Apple appears to have drawn first blood, and we need to wait and see if Samsung has an ace up their sleeve to counter this latest win.
This latest case is based on lawsuit that was filed in April of last year by Apple, and the two firms have agreed to enter in to settlement talks so that an amicable solution can be sought.
