14 DAY TRIAL // The past three weeks have been mercifully free of further developments in the drama that is known as the Apple-Samsung patent war. Or at least there weren't any events major enough to warrant coverage more than the IFA 2012 and IDF.
Now, though, the judge overseeing the proceedings in the San Jose, California district court has taken a decision concerning the status of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Long story short, Judge Lucy Koh elected to leave the ban on the tablet in place, due to lack of jurisdiction, even though the motion to lift the injunction raised a “substantial issue.”
Samsung will only be able to send the request back to the judge when filing it with the appeals court, much later.
This is just the latest strange episode in a long list of episodes. The tablet started this entire patent war, but was the only device found not to infringe any patents by the jury. And this was only after a different court banned the slate from the United States.
At this point, Apple clearly holds the higher ground, having been granted both the injunctions it sought, as well as payment of around $1 billion / 750 million Euro.
It doesn't help Samsung's case that the tab, as well as some other devices, were banned in its home market, although that verdict was far more, shall we say, balanced (some Apple devices got banned as well).
At any rate, the fight between Apple and Samsung will not end any time soon. They will have to meet in court yet again, this Thursday (September 20, 2012) and then on December 6, when they argue about injunctions on some other devices.
After all is said and done, Samsung and Apple can file appeals if they are unsatisfied with the outcome, which they probably will be.