Technology giant Apple, Inc. (AAPL) won Tuesday a favorable ruling from U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh when she granted it a preliminary injunction preventing South Korean conglomerate Samsung Electronics (SSNLF) from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the U.S., pending further review.
Koh overturned her ruling of December 2011 that had denied Apple's motion for a preliminary injunction on the tablet and multiple Galaxy smartphones. Koh said the current ruling is based on taking up further proceeding with respect to Apple's design patent no. D504,889 (D'889 patent).
"This Court already found that Samsung's products are "virtually indistinguishable" from Apple's products, and that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 likely infringed on the D'889 Patent. Moreover, this Court previously found that Apple had shown that it was likely to suffer irreparable harm from the sales of Samsung's infringing tablets because:(1) Apple and Samsung were direct competitors, (2) together the two companies held a relatively large market share," Koh stated in the ruling.
The court found that Apple was likely to succeed on establishing infringement at trial in light of the substantial similarities between the design of the accused product and the D'889 Patent.
Cupertino, California-based Apple had originally filed for Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringing Apple's design patent nos. D618,677, D593,087, D504,889, and Apple's U.S. Patent No.7,469,381. Apple was seeking a preliminary injunction banning sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the U.S.
The ban order will become effective as soon as Apple provides a $2.6 billion bond to protect Samsung if it is later determined that the ban was wrongfully applied. However, Samsung would surely go in for an appeal against the ban as this is only a preliminary injunction, and based on the reversal of the ban in Australia in mid-December following an appeal. The ban took away some of its pre-Christmas sales.
"Although Samsung has a right to compete, it does not have a right to compete unfairly, by flooding the market with infringing products," Koh noted.
"In this case, although Samsung will necessarily be harmed by being forced to withdraw its product from the market before the merits can be determined after a full trial, the harm faced by Apple absent an injunction on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is greater," Koh added.
Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung has argued that it is an overbroad injunction based on "one aspect of the overall product,". Samsung also argued that "an injunction would harm Samsung's business relationships with wireless carriers that provide the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to their customers."
The legal battle between the two companies started in April 2011 when Apple accused Samsung of copying key design elements in smartphones and tablets. Samsung and Apple have filed at least 30 lawsuits against each other in at least 12 courts, nine countries, and four continents involving smartphone and tablet patents since then.
They have accused each other of copying design and patent infringements primarily in Australia, Britain, the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands, France and Italy.
Apple has already won major victories against Samsung as the sale of Samsung tablets are banned in Germany and its three latest Galaxy smartphone models are banned in the Netherlands.
AAPL closed Tuesday's regular trading session at $572.03, up $1.26 or 0.22% on a volume of 9.88 million shares, and SSNLF last traded at $1,000.00 on June 25.
Samsung shares rose 28,000.00 won or 2.46% in Wednesday's regular trading session and is currently trading at 1,167,000 won on the Kospi on a volume of 0.29 million shares.
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