Ban

Apple once again denied US sales ban on select Samsung devices

Apple has once again been shot down by US District Judge Lucy Koh in its ongoing effort to win a sales ban on Samsung devices. In San Jose, California today, Koh denied the Cupertino company's latest bid to ban select Samsung smartphones.

Despite two US juries finding multiple Samsung products to be infringing on its patents, Apple has seen little success in its injunction attempts. This time, the company had hoped to make its request more viable, asking for a "narrowly tailored" ban.

Apple pulls popular ‘Weed Firm’ game from the App Store

Apple has pulled the popular, and somewhat controversial, game 'Weed Firm' from the App Store this week. The game landed on iOS just a few weeks ago, and had climbed its way to the top of the App Store's 'Top Free' list in several countries.

For those unfamiliar with the game, the game centers around a marijuana business, started by an expelled botany student who inherits a growing operation and expands it. Players control all aspects of the business, including selling cannabis...

Dutch court upholds sales ban of older Samsung Galaxy devices

Recode reports that a Dutch appeals court has upheld a lower court's sales ban of some older Samsung Galaxy devices that infringe on Apple's IP. The patent in question involves how iOS users are able to peak at the next photo in a gallery by swiping the current image.

The ruling will apply specifically to the Galaxy S2, and the Galaxy Ace—both of which include Samsung photo apps that run an exact copy of the feature—and it could possibly be extended to other Samsung devices found to similarly infringe on Apple's European patent...

Appeals court gives Apple another chance to ban Samsung devices

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...

Apple wins ITC ban on Samsung products

Apple picked up another major victory in its ongoing patent battle with Samsung this afternoon. The International Trade Commission has just handed down a decision in the company's case against Samsung, finding the Korean tech giant guilty of infringement.

The final ruling on the complaint, which Apple first lodged in July 2011, finds several Samsung products guilty of infringing on two of Apple's patents. An import ban has been ordered on those products, and will take effect at the end of the 60-day Presidential review period...

Apple asks ITC for stay on sales ban affecting older iOS devices

Apple has asked the United States International Trade Commission (or ITC) to stay a ban on sales of older iPhone and iPads while a court considers an appeal. The company filed a motion on Monday arguing that the ban, which is the result of a Samsung patent infringement complaint, will 'sweep away an entire segment of Apple's products...'

Apple pulls controversial ‘Bang With Friends’ app from App Store

Apple has decided to pull Bang With Friends, a controversial app that lets users anonymously pick which of their Facebook friends they'd like to hook up with, and then notifies them when there's a match, from its App Store this afternoon.

There's no word yet on why the app was removed. But between Apple's staunch attitude toward all things vulgar, and its app review team's track record for pulling software on a whim, we're not at all surprised to see Bang With Friends gone...

Apple orders messaging app ‘Line’ to remove paid virtual gifts

Apple's app approval team has seemingly been on a warpath lately, pulling popular titles like AppGratis from the App Store without much warning or explanation. It's clear that the company is in the process of revamping some of its policies.

Case in point, LINE, a popular free messaging app, was forced by Apple to remove one of its key features today. Per company orders, the developers had to eliminate the ability for its users to purchase and send sticker sets as gifts to friends...

AppGratis CEO sheds further light on App Store removal

As most of you have probably heard by now, Apple pulled the popular app discovery app AppGratis over the weekend. There's been a few reasons given for the removal, including notification abuse, but not much else has been said about the situation.

Until today, that is. AppGratis CEO Simon Dawalt took to the company's blog this morning to talk about the recent removal of his team's app, and shed some light on what it means for them moving forward. And to be honest, it doesn't look good...

Apple scores EU-wide sales ban on 7.7-inch Galaxy Tab, loses appeal on 10.1N

FOSS Patents reports that Apple has been granted an expanded sales ban on Samsung's Galaxy Tab 7.7 over design infringement, with a German court issuing a preliminary injunction ruling that Samsung may not sell the device anywhere in the European Union.

A sales ban in Germany has been in effect for a number of months now under a decision related to its larger sibling, the Galaxy Tab 10.1, but today's decision extends the ban to all EU countries. At the same time, Apple lost an appeal to bar Samsung’s revised Galaxy Tab 10.1N tablet from selling across Europe...

Galaxy Nexus pulled from Google Play Store in wake of Apple injunction

That didn't take long. Less than 12 hours after Judge Lucy Koh denied Samsung's request to stay the Galaxy Nexus injunction, the handset disappears from Google Play Stores.

Last week, Apple was able to convince Koh that the Nexus was infringing on its patents — enough to warrant a preliminary ban. And it looks like that ban is already in effect...

Apple says HTC lied to Customs, asks for another import ban

Late last year, the International Trade Commission found HTC to be infringing on one of Apple's patents. So the ITC gave the company until April to correct the problem, before enforcing a country-wide import ban on its products.

Long story short, shipments of several HTC devices were held up at U.S. customs last month due to the ruling. And even though it supposedly found a workaround, and the shipments were released, HTC isn't out of the woods just yet...