The CAFC denial opens the door for Apple to refile its original preliminary injunction motion after California Judge Lucy Koh initially shelved the request two weeks ago pending receipt of an official federal mandate. Apple is closing in on the tablet ban after traversing a bumpy road of rejections and appeals as the California district court judge is set to make a decision after hearings later this week, reports FOSS Patents.
Tuesday's rejection comes one month after the CAFC partially granted Apple's appeal of a December 2011 ruling in which Judge Koh handed down a wholesale rejection of requests to ban Samsung products that allegedly mimic the design iPhone and iPad. Apple quickly attempted to refile for a Galaxy Tab sales ban but the effort was quashed.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denies Samsung request for rehearing.
While May decision overturned part of the initial ruling against the injunction requests and allowed Apple to reassert claims against the Galaxy Tab, Samsung lawyers convinced Judge Koh that it would be premature to issue an injunction without first receiving formal mandate from the CAFC. In response, the iPhone maker asked the CAFC "to Issue the Mandate Forthwith or Shorten the Time to File a Petition for Panel Rehearing or Rehearing En Banc" but the court deferred the motion, saying:
"In light of Appellees' [i.e., Samsung's] representation that they will file a petition for rehearing on May 29, 2012, the court will defer ruling for now on Appellant's [i.e., Apple's] motion to issue the mandate forthwith."
This ultimately led to the decision handed down on Tuesday which should be followed up shortly by the official mandate Judge Koh has been waiting for in order to move forward with the injunction.
Apple and Samsung are set to meet in the California court again on Thursday for a hearing on the two parties' summary judgment requests in an attempt to whittle down the scope of the trial.
22 Comments
Doesn't really matter anyway.
Galaxy Tab this or that, Android tablets need to be rethought completely.
If you ask me, I think that Microsoft Surface tablet will be the real tablet threat to Apple. I'm a huge fan of Apple and have all three generations of iPads... but if the price if right people will have a really hard time resisting the lure of a full OS on their tablets that also runs on their desktops.
I would wait until you really see the product. It is a step better than vaporware right now and they have received nothing but criticism.
Microsoft hasn't released a tablet that's successful in the mainstream yet which I'd argue Apple has roundly done. I'm not saying they can't but that's a pattern - of misses and efforts that never saw the light of day. The Surface looks slick but there are as many reasons to be predict success as failure. I think Ballmer is smart to minimize the expectations.
I would wait until you really see the product. It is a step better than vaporware right now and they have received nothing but criticism.
Working products for the press to use is hardly vaporware. Learn the definition.
Microsoft hasn't released a tablet that's successful in the mainstream yet which I'd argue Apple has roundly done. I'm not saying they can't but that's a pattern - of misses and efforts that never saw the light of day. The Surface looks slick but there are as many reasons to be predict success as failure. I think Ballmer is smart to minimize the expectations.
Why is predicting success as failure ok in this case but not others? Because Mac enthusiasts just hate Microsoft so glass is automatically half empty? Yes MS had a string of failures 5 years ago, from Vista to Zune to Tablet PCs but their more recent efforts have been much better. Windows 7, 360 S, Kinect etc. They are too big and have too much money to be dismissed so easily. Surface looks interesting, but I'd rather pass judgement on it when I can actually mess with one and no it's not going to outsell an iPad.
Frankly everyone's yelling they are competing with the partners. I don't see it that way. I think they are taking the approach Google does with the Nexus program. I think they are frustrated by boring bland crappy hardware PC offerings and want to motivate them to move in a certain (very Apple) direction.