The patent war is as fiery as ever, but neither side has won yet

Dec 18, 2012 09:05 GMT  ·  By

Even though Christmas is just a week way, Samsung and Apple are pushing forward with all they can in their attempts to gain or maintain the upper hand in their patent war.

We are following up on the latest developments in the San Jose, California district court, where Judge Lucy Koh is overseeing the biggest of the multiple feuds going on at present.

Apple has managed to convince the jury that many Samsung devices infringe its patents, so it has been awarded an almost total victory.

Samsung is trying to completely overturn the verdict, saying that the jury foreman has deliberately lied and caused the other members to handle things poorly.

Apple has been defending the ruling, of course, and doing its best to get the 26 phones and tablets banned from the US market.

To do that, however, it needs to prove that the infringing features are the primary causes of the marketing success of those devices. Having failed to do this, the judge has ruled against the injunction.

"This Court has already performed significant irreparable harm analysis in this case," Judge Koh wrote in the Order denying permanent injunction (PDF).

"Neither statements about broad categories, nor evidence of copying, nor the conjoint survey provides sufficiently strong evidence of causation. Without a causal nexus, this Court cannot conclude that the irreparable harm supports entry of an injunction."

The way this whole patent war has progressed is ironic really. It started from Samsung's Galaxy Tab, and how it was supposedly a blatant rip-off of the iPad. Then it extended to Galaxy phones, only for the verdict to rule that everything except the tablet infringed on Apple's patents.

Then there is the similar trial in the UK, where Apple's case was all but tossed out of court. Apple was even ordered to publish an apology to Samsung, admitting that its IP wasn't illegally used. It even got scolded for not doing right the first time.

Throughout all this, Judge Koh wishes for global peace, but it is clear that this is one very unlikely dream.