Apple failed to get a court injunction in its bid to prohibit Samsung from selling over half a dozen smartphones in the American market.
With rival smartphone makers Apple and Samsung dropping their patent infringement suits all over the world except in the United States, the long-standing legal battle between the two companies is hopefully coming to an end. However, with Apple winning only a small fraction of the $2.2 billion patent case filed against Samsung earlier this year, the iPhone maker has thrown in a last-ditch attempt to ban the sales of ten older Samsung smartphones and the Galaxy 2 tablet, a bid rejected by U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh of San Jose, California.
In her ruling denying the request to prohibit Samsung phones, the judge says that while the evidence points to Samsung infringing upon Apple patents and incorporating these patented features into its smartphones, it does not show proof that the infringement caused irreparable harm to Apple's sales and increased customer demand for Samsung products. The judge also notes that Apple has recently licensed the patents in question to other smartphone makers such as HTC and Nokia.
"Apple cannot argue that Samsung's use of patented features will damage Apple's reputation for exclusivity if these features are not in fact exclusive to Apple, due to licenses to competitors," writes [pdf] Koh in her ruling.
Judge Koh's latest ruling also states that Apple has failed to prove that Samsung's infringements have caused harm to the company, with Apple enjoying impressive profits from its iPhone sales as can be seen in its third-quarter fiscal report submitted to the court this year. Furthermore, the judge says the $119 million Samsung was ordered to pay Apple amounted to a royalty payment for its use of features licensed by Apple.
"To award an injunction to Apple in these circumstances would ignore the Federal Circuit's warning that a patentee may not 'leverage its patent for competitive gain beyond that which the inventive contribution and value of the patent warrant,'" continues the judge.
Her ruling also cites instances of Apple's reluctance to license the patents to Samsung despite licensing to other manufacturers, referring to a slideshow Apple presented to Samsung containing the patents in question and the statement: "Samsung needs a license to continue to use Apple patents in infringing smartphones." Although Apple says the slideshow is not indicative of initial licensing offers to Samsung, the judge says the slideshow, which says "Provided for Information and Business Settlement Purposes Only," points to Apple's earlier willingness to license its patents to Samsung.
The patents in question are for the features for unlocking the screen with a swiping gesture, automatically calling a number simply by tapping on that number and auto-correct. Apple's denied motion for injunction concerns the Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S2, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, Galaxy S3, Admire and Stratosphere.
Apple was also found to have infringed upon a Samsung patent for a feature for obtaining, classifying and organizing digital images and was ordered by the court to pay $158,000 in damages.
