Just as we expected, shortly after the jury handed down its verdict today, Judge Lucy Koh set a date for a preliminary injunction hearing. Apple has already won — some one billion dollars in damages — but now it’s looking for sales bans.
The hearing is set for September 20th. And considering that the jury found several of Samsung’s handsets, and two of its tablets, to be infringing on Apple’s patents, it’s very possible that we could see some products banned from the US…
The Verge has the story:
“After the jury returned with some corrections to its initial verdict to resolve some of the inconsistencies in its findings, it was excused from the courtroom and Judge Lucy Koh discussed the next stage in the trial with both sides: a preliminary hearing on injunctions based on the verdict. Given that many of Samsung’s phones were found to infringe on Apple’s patents and that many of them are still for sale today, it’s possible that we could see sales bans as a result of the next hearings.”
Apple has to file its injunction requests by August 29th. So we should have a better idea by then of which of Samsung’s infringing devices it wants gone. It’ll be interesting to see what they go with, as The Verge points out, several of them are still on sale in the US today. In fact, Boost Mobile just launched the Replenish, and the Transform.
The initial trial may be over, but between this injunction hearing, and what will likely be several appeal attempts, this courtroom battle is far from over. But make no mistake, with today’s verdict, Apple just took a commanding lead.