Apple drops permanent injunction quest in Samsung lawsuit

Apple vs Samsung (image 002)

Apple filed a motion with the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in California yesterday, dropping its cross-appeal of Judge Lucy Koh’s final judgement in its lawsuit against Samsung. The motion officially ends the company’s pursuit of a product ban.

Now, this is just for the 2012 trial, not the one that ended in May. Apple had been looking to win a permanent injunction against all of Samsung’s infringing devices in that case, and filed multiple appeals, but it appears to have given up on this particular battle…

Here’s an excerpt from Apple’s motion (via FOSS Patents):

Pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 42(b), Plaintiff-Cross Appellant Apple Inc. (“Apple”) moves to voluntarily dismiss its cross-appeal, No. 2014-1368.

Apple further moves to reform the official caption of the remaining appeal (No. 2014-1335) to reflect the dismissal of Apple’s cross-appeal.

Counsel for Apple has conferred with counsel for Samsung Electronics Corporation, Ltd., Samsung Electronics America, Inc., and Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC (collectively, “Samsung”) regarding the substance of this motion. Samsung does not oppose the relief requested in this motion and will not file a response.

Apple accordingly requests that the Court grant its motion and dismiss its cross-appeal and reform the official caption to reflect the dismissal. A proposed order is attached. 

The move isn’t all that surprising, given that the devices Apple was seeking to ban in this case are now multiple generations-old. It also likely wants to focus all of its attention on its pursuit of a permanent injunction on devices from the second Samsung trial.

Samsung, of course, has agreed with Apple’s motion to dismiss, and is continuing on with its own appeal efforts to have Judge Koh’s final ruling dismissed in its entirety. If successful this would either erase, or greatly reduce the near $1 billion settlement.