Samsung-Apple Patent War
In the US lawsuit filed by Apple against Samsung Electronics, the court replied, “It is possible to restrict sales of Samsung Electronics’ products due to utility patent issues.” As the previous verdict to dismiss the appeal from the lower court has been flipped, it is now more likely that some of Samsung’s tablets and smartphones may be banned from sales.
On November 18 (local time), the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said, “It is an abuse of power for the Southern California District Court to dismiss Apple’s appeal to ‘ban sales of Samsung tablet PCs and smartphones which violate patents,’ and therefore should reconsider that ruling.”
The US Appeals Court said District Court Judge Lucy Koh’s verdict on the utility patent was “an abuse of power by the District Court,” and ordered her to reconsider the ruling. Specific patents include user interface features such as Pinch to Zoom, Rubber Banding, and Tap to Zoom and Navigate.
However, the US appeals court maintained the lower court’s ruling regarding the design patent, saying, “Apple was not able to prove it will receive irreversible damage by Samsung Electronics violating Apple’s design patent.”
Regarding the appeals court’s decision to possibly ban sales of Samsung products due to utility patent issues, patent specialist Florian Mueller pointed out that this will greatly impact both companies in this lawsuit.
In the “FOSS Patents” blog, he said Apple’s injunction covers “any device with an infringement pattern that is no more than colorably different from the accused products in this particular case” and that it is a “popular misbelief that an injunction would affect only older products that Samsung no longer sells.”
Earlier, Apple requested to ban US sales of 26 Samsung smartphone models which violate three design patents and three utility patents. In December last year, district court judge Lucy Koh dismissed this request, leading Apple to appeal this dismissal.
A Samsung Electronics’ associate said, “We welcome that the appeals court denied Apple’s request to ban sales for design patents and trade dress (the unique ambiance of a certain product),” and added, “We’re certain the possibilities of banning sales on the utility patents which is now subject to reconsideration is also not too big.”
The domestic electronics industry anticipates that since Samsung Electronics has been applying different technologies for related utility patent issues to its newest products, even if some products do get a US sales ban, it will not have a big impact.