Apple appeals Judge’s decision to dismiss Samsung injunction

courtroom gavel

As expected, Apple is filing for an appeal on Judge Koh’s decision to throw out its request for a permanent injunction against Samsung’s products. In addition to the $1 billion in damages it won back in August, the iPad-maker was seeking a US sales ban on all of Samsung’s infringing devices.

But in a pair of rulings handed down Monday, Koh denied both Samsung’s request for a re-trial due to jury misconduct, and Apple’s injunction request, noting that it would not be in the public’s best interest to halt Samsung handset sales when only a few features were found guilty of infringement…

Obviously, Apple disagrees. According to a new court filing, first discovered by CNET, Apple has begun the process of filing an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals on the Federal Circuit. And it may just have a shot. Patent expert Florian Mueller believes that there are grounds here to overturn the ruling.

“It may be unprecedented in the legal history of the United States for an injunction motion to be denied across the board despite such a large number of infringement findings (roughly half a dozen) by a jury and, especially, in light of the competitive situation between the two as well as the jury’s findings of willful infringement. If no injunction is ordered in such a case, it is hard to see how any patent holder could ever prevail on such a motion.”

So why is Apple appealing the decision? I mean it’s already getting $1 billion in damages, isn’t it? Remember, a billion dollars isn’t much to the two tech giants. But a permanent sales ban, now that would give Apple some leverage over Samsung. And it sure wouldn’t hurt its mission for marketshare.

The appeal filing comes just a day after Samsung pointed out to the Court that one of Apple’s key patents in the case has been recently reexamined, and preliminarily invalidated, by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Nothing’s final yet, but the discovery could really work in Samsung’s favor.

Still expected to come later this week is a ruling from Koh that could change the $1 billion damages amount. During a post-trial hearing earlier this month, Apple made a bid to increase the amount, and, as you can probably imagine, Samsung argued to lower them. Stay tuned.