An American judge has ruled against Apple’s plea for Samsung to stop selling devices in the US, saying the technology giant should be able to cope with Samsung’s rivalry.
The court in California had already awarded Apple US$1.05 billion in damages to be paid by its South Korean rival because of patent infringement, but Judge Lucy Koh refused to impose further punishment.
The Guardian reported both sides in the case were left disgruntled and the battle over the Samsung Galaxy Nexus was set to continue because Apple intends to continue in other courts around the country.
Passing her judgement, Koh said: “Samsung may have cut into Apple’s customer base somewhat, but there is no suggestion that Samsung will wipe out Apple’s customer base, or force Apple out of the business of making smartphones. The present case involves lost sales – not a lost ability to be a viable market participant.”
Apple had wanted bans on 26 Samsung devices, but Koh added: “Apple must have lost these sales because Samsung infringed Apple’s patents. Apple has simply not been able to make this showing.”
Samsung is the world’s largest mobile phone and smartphone maker and between the pair they control around half of the entire smartphone market worldwide.
Apple are expected to appeal and this latest judgement is the most recent development in what has become known as the “patent wars”.
HumanIPO reported last week that MobileMedia, part owned by Nokia and Sony, had won its battle against Apple over three patents it claimed Apple violated. These were the iPhone’s mobile phone camera, call handling and call rejection patterns.
In November Nokia filed lawsuits against Blackberry-maker RIM in three countries over standards-essential patents (SEPs) the pair have licensed to each other since 2003, which allows phones to connect to Wi-Fi networks.
