Mikey Campbell
After months of back-and-forth litigation, Apple won a US sales ban against certain Samsung software features found in infringement of three patents, though the ruling has no real bearing on either company's business.
California district court judge Lucy Koh on Monday entered a ruling granting Apple a permanent injunction against Samsung, prohibiting the Korean company from developing, selling, importing, updating or advertising software that helps infringe on Apple's patents. The decision comes eight months after a jury in the second Apple v. Samsung trial found in favor of Apple.
Judge Koh ruled that Apple will suffer irreparable harm if Samsung continues to use infringing features and sell the devices that run it. Specifically, Samsung was found to have illegally implemented Apple's '647 patent for data detectors, '721 patent for "slide-to-unlock" and '172 patent for predictive text input is software running on its Admire, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note II, Galaxy S II, Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S II Skyrocket, Galaxy S III, and Stratosphere devices.
As noted by FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller, the win is of little consequence to both companies, aside from being a notch on the belt of Apple's legal team. Two of the patents, Apple's '721 "slide-to-unlock" and '172 "autocorrect," are likely to be found invalid, while the '647 data detectors patent is set to expire on Feb. 1.
Apple was fighting for an injunction ruling to be put into effect immediately instead of the usual 30-day deadline, but Judge Koh rejected the request. It might be a moot point, however, as Mueller believes the '647 patent was not found infringed under the appropriate claim construction.
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21 Comments
dear judge koh,
please drag your feet a little more next time.
Still, it sets precedence, and is another bullet in the gun (suck-it, left-wingers) at the next trial.
So ultimately both companies wasted millions in legal fees for a decision that means nothing realistically.
Oh well, I guess lawyers gotta eat too.
....but what about the rounded rectangles? /s
I think that I have found a solution for Apple to come out ahead in the legal arena.
Since these lawsuits drag on forever, and even if you win, it doesn't mean much, since the products that the lawsuits were about are now obsolete. Apple should sue Samsung in advance, if that was possible.
As an example, if Samsung currently has a Galaxy 13 available, then Apple should sue over the Galaxy 15, or whichever Samsung models will be out in a few years. This way, when Apple wins, perhaps the ban will cover currently available products, and not obsolete ones.
Does it matter that the exact details or specifications of that future Samsung product are not yet known? Perhaps, but we all know for sure that Samsung will be guilty of copying and infringing upon multiple Apple ideas and concepts, both now and in the future, so it's better to anticipate the treachery of Samsung in advance.
If Apple is currently working on new features that are not currently found on any devices, then Apple should already be preparing the lawsuits, while the ideas are still in the early stages, because you know for damn sure that the copycats will be coming out with their own, lame, inferior versions of it, as quickly as they can.
I realize that what I've written is not really feasible, it's more of a "what if" scenario and wishful thinking on my part. :#