Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) again could not convince a U.S. district judge to put a sales ban on Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) devices that were found to be infringing the iPhone maker’s patent, says a report from Bloomberg. District Judge Lucy H. Koh in San Jose, Calif. denied the company’s bid to “narrowly tailor” the sales of some older Samsung smartphone models after a jury ruled in favor of the former in May.
No significant effect on Apple sales
Apple’s failure to ban Samsung sales hardly matters much, as the company announced last month that it shipped a whopping 35.2 million iPhones in the quarter, which is a leap that increased the company’s profits by 12%. Apple’s sales report card was tremendous, reflecting how the company has outdone competition from other smartphone manufacturers in the quarter as consumers await the next device to be announced by CEO Tim Cook.
There was no comment from Apple or a Samsung spokeswoman about the matter. Samsung did not seek a ban on Apple sales when the court found that the latter had infringed on one patent of the former related to retrieving, classifying and organizing digital images, awarding $158,000 in damages.
Apple, Samsung patent wars almost ending
Both companies are calling off their patent fight globally and reached a consensus to drop all suits against each other in countries other than the United States, which includes Australia, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Netherlands, the U.K., France and Italy. The current decision given by the court will put an end to the long patent fight between both the companies, which has gone sour from time to time, revolving around the touch screen smartphones.
Last year, the smartphone market was valued by research firm IDC at a whopping $338.3 billion. Koh has asked both companies to reach an outside court settlement over the never-ending dispute between them, which has taken a toll on sales of both sides. Judge Koh has denied Apple’s requests to ban some Samsung smartphone models twice.
Despite being rivals, Samsung supplies Apple with some critical components, like semiconductors and memory chips.
