U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh on Wednesday handed down an order denying Apple's motion for a sales ban against Samsung products a jury found to have infringed on three patents in May.
According to the order relating to the second Apple v. Samsung court trial in California, Apple did not adequately demonstrate it was irreparably harmed and tie any alleged harm to Samsung's infringement of three granted patents.
From Judge Koh's order:
Apple has not established that it suffered significant harm in the form of either lost sales or reputational injury. Moreover, Apple has not shown that it suffered any of these alleged harms because Samsung infringed Apple's patents. The Federal Circuit has cautioned that the plaintiff must demonstrate a causal nexus between its supposed harm (including reputational harm) and the specific infringement at issue. Apple has not demonstrated that the patented inventions drive consumer demand for the infringing products
The ruling comes as post-trial proceedings continue after a jury awarded Apple $119.6 million in damages in May. Apple was also found guilty of infringing upon a single Samsung patent, for which the jury assigned a $158,000 award.
Wednesday's decision was based both on trial testimony and subsequent hearings from Apple and Samsung. In its second major California court action against the Korean company, Apple asserted a total of five patents, three of which were found actionable in the case.
In a summary judgment leading up to the trial, Judge Koh found Samsung in infringement of Apple's '172 patent for predictive text input. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office later rejected key claims of the asserted IP, leaving damages and motions based on the patent in the lurch.
Today's denial is yet another setback for Apple in its numerous bids to ban Samsung products in the U.S. and abroad. The company recently withdrew a cross-appeal of Judge Koh's final judgment in the first Apple v. Samsung case, dropping a sought injunction against 23 patent-infringing devices. That particular demand was denied twice before Apple successfully argued an appeal of Judge Koh's original ruling, though the motion was ultimately put to bed.
More recently, Judge Koh released Apple's $26 million bond the company put up in association with a proposed Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales ban after both Apple and Samsung withdrew motions regarding the enforcement of an injunction.
Apple and Samsung agreed to settle all non-U.S. litigation earlier in August, leaving California an open battleground.