Appeals court gives Apple another chance to ban Samsung devices

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The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has vacated Judge Lucy Koh’s earlier denial of Apple’s request to ban 26 Samsung devices that infringed on its patent. The move will give Apple another chance to permanently halt the sales of these devices in the US.

Now the issue will be sent back to Koh’s court, where Apple’s lawyers will no longer have to prove that the patented features in Samsung’s products were the sole reason for driving sales, but only that there is some connection between the features and demand for Samsung devices…

The Wall Street Journal has more:

“The decision, by the Washington-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, handed a partial victory to Apple in a closely-watched legal battle in the smartphone patent wars.

The appeals court ruled unanimously that U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, Calif., made errors last year when she denied Apple’s request for a court injunction against 26 Samsung products.

The court said parts of Judge Koh’s ruling against Apple were correct, but it said the judge should spend more time considering evidence offered by the iPhone maker to support arguments that Apple is being irreparably harmed by Samsung’s patent infringement.”

Apple has argued that Samsung deliberately copied its “revolutionary” iPhone that took it years and several billions of dollars in R&D and resources to build. Samsung, for its part, argues that monetary compensation [to Apple] should be adequate enough and a product ban isn’t warranted.

Speaking of compensation, the two companies are currently battling it out in court to determine the proper amount that Samsung must pay. The total awarded by a California jury last year was originally over $1 billion, but that amount was improperly cut in half this year, prompting a retrial.