Apple Wins: US bans Selected Samsung Phones

While being at the losing end of a five-year patent lawsuit, Samsung once again receives a beating as US District Judge Lucy Koh rules in favour of tech giant Apple, Inc. to end a second patent trial between the two tech giants.

Arstechnica says that a permanent injunction against old Samsung devices will be in place a month after the ruling on the multiple infringement claims filed by Apple in 2011. Apple asserts that the South Korean manufacturer slavishly copied Apple’s design for a number of its products, namely: the Samsung Captivate, Continuum, Vibrant, Galaxy S 4G, Epic 4G, Indulge, Mesmerize, Showcase, Fascinate, Nexus S, Gem, Transform, Intercept, and Acclaim smartphones and the Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet.  You can download this pdf file, to have a full grasp on the complaint filed by Apple against Samsung in 2011.

Another source claims that the lawsuit started way back in June 2010. The source points out that, according to an Australian affidavit from the plaintiff’s global legal counsel Richard Lutton, Apple’s chief executive Steve Jobs, warned Samsung concerning a possible litigation sometime in June 2010, right after the release of the first Galaxy handsets.

Amongst the Samsung devices that are now banned in the US as a result of this ruling are as follows: Admire, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S2, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, Galaxy S3, and Stratosphere, according to Androidpolice. Of these, only the Galaxy S3 and Note II are the most recent devices. However, these models were released in 2012. The rest are already old prototypes and may not be available in the market anymore.

Even if it may seem that the injunction does not really mean a thing as Samsung has just been prohibited from selling devices that primarily have been pulled out of the US market, still, there are inherent repercussions to consider. Primary implication of the ruling is extending more power to patent holders, which might encourage the trade as well as the assertion of more low-quality, somewhat advanced design patents having the possibility of these patents to be infringed by some upcoming electronic devices, according to the private briefs presented to the US Supreme Court in response to the current ruling.

Samsung, together with other known industry players, including Google, Facebook, eBay, Dell, HP, Vizio, Enterprise Co., Newegg, Pegasystems Inc., filed 6 amicus briefs in support for Samsung and to encourage the Supreme Court to reform the current patent law to better define design patents as well as limit the damages to be settled.