Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has lost its latest attempt to block the sale of certain phones made by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94). A federal judge rejected the requested ban on those devices after a jury found that Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) infringed on patents owned by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in six of its phones.
In the judge’s ruling, she said Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) did not prove that the consumer demand for phones made by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) was driven by the patented technology. She also said that the infringement was just a small part of the phones in question, so she didn’t believe that it was in the interest of the public to ban the sale of those phones. She has not yet ruled on whether the monetary penalty awarded by the jury in August will be reduced, as requested by Samsung.
On Monday the judge also rejected a request by Samsung for a new trial in the case. The company claimed that the jury foreman in the trial had a conflict of interest because he did not tell the court that he had been involved in a lawsuit with Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX), a company he once worked for. Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX) reportedly loaned him money while he worked for it, and the company attempted to recover the money after he declared bankruptcy. Samsung is now the second-highest shareholder of Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX).
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) said only three of the 26 phones Apple was attempting to have banned are still being sold, but the patent wars in connection with Samsung and Apple will continue all over the world, with estimates of the value of those court battles being around $219 billion. Bloomberg Businessweek reports that the same judge who heard the current case will also hear the next case between the two tech giants, which is over the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy S III phones. The new lawsuit has Apple and Samsung pointing fingers and each one claiming the other of copying its phones. This suit is not expected to go to trial until 2014.
