In another twist to the Samsung vs Apple patent battle, Judge Koh has dissolved the sales ban imposed on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the US. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 was hit by an injunction by the same judge back in June after having been found guilty of infringing on the Apple iPad’s design patents.
However in the recent patent battle, although the jury did find the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to be infringing a lot of Apple patents the hardware design patent wasn’t one of those. As a result, Samsung was understandably keen to get the injunction removed to which Judge Koh stated in a September filing that she would dissolve it if only the case would fall under her jurisdiction and the matter was under the appeals court.
Last Friday, the case was transferred back to Koh by the Federal US Circuit Court and subsequently she struck the ban out. At the same time she has also stated that the court will still be holding on to the $2.6 million bond Apple was asked to deposit and will be only returned after the post trial matters are completed.
Now Judge Koh is scheduled for a December hearing again for the patent trial which will also include a decision on the fate of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and whether it will be banned again for other patent infringements, which looks likely.
Apple has already made its position clear stating that they would like to get all the Samsung devices infringing Apple patents banned in the US and will push for the same for a number of devices including the likes of the Galaxy SII, Galaxy Tab 10.1 and other 20 devices named in the trial. There is also a second patent lawsuit filed against Samsung by Apple which is up for hearing early next year.
For now it’s a temporary relief for Samsung and there is every possibility that the Tab 10.1 along with other devices might get banned in the states. However, one thing is for sure and that the patent battle between Apple and Samsung is slated to go on for a few more months at least before we get more clarity on who holds the upper hand here.
Till then Samsung is sure making the most of it by rapidly capturing a huge chunk of the smartphone market share across the globe every quarter.
