Apple injunction on Samsung patent infringement gets denied over competition basis

Judge Lucy Koh of a California court has denied Apple Inc's injunction on selling products that has patents reportedly infringed by Samsung Electronics Co from the Cupertino, California-based company, 9 To 5 Mac said. Citing a report by FOSS Patents, the injunction is related to the original patent lawsuit that Apple had filed in 2011 and had already claimed financial damages when it won against Samsung.

The original patent lawsuit of Apple points to several products of Samsung that has technology that is remarkably similar to that of Apple's products. 9 To 5 Mac said Apple won the lawsuit and obtained around $1 billion in damages. In the latest development, Apple insisted that the financial damages it obtained from the original lawsuit was not enough to compensate for the infringement Samsung had done, and insist that Samsung's infringing products should not be sold.

The technology blog said Apple's latest legal action against Samsung was curious considering most of the products that were found to have infringed Apple's patents are now obsolete. However, the real goal of Apple is that should Koh decide to favor the US company's request for injunction, it will be able to use the Samsung situation to gain a competitive advantage to future cases wherein it will be seeking financial damages plus a product sale injunction.

However, 9 To 5 Mac said that Koh might have foreseen the implications of siding with Apple, and reasoned that in the infringement case against Samsung, the patents available on the South Korean company's products were not the only factor why consumers purchase them.

To award an injunction to Apple in these circumstances would ignore the Federal Circuit's warning that a patentee may not "leverage its patent for competitive gain beyond that which the inventive contribution and value of the patent warrant," Koh said in her ruling.

Tags

Apple Inc, Samsung Electronics Co, Apple patent infringement case

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