14 DAY TRIAL // This week, Apple won an important victory against arch-enemy Samsung, as a US appeals court ruled that the South Korean tech giant should have been banned from using select Apple features within some of its products.
Back in May 2014, a jury determined that Samsung had infringed on three Apple patents, one for quick links, one for slide-to-unlock, and another for automatic word correction. And back then, the Cupertino tech giant pleaded with the court to ban Samsung products that made use of these inventions, but a US District Courte Judge ruled that monetary compensation was enough.
However, a year later, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit disagrees with the decision and contends that the “right to exclude competition from using one’s property rights is important" (as reported by Bloomberg).
So the appeals court annulled the district court’s decision and sent the case back to the lower court for reconsideration. The ruling means that Samsung might be forced to change some aspects of its smartphones and tablets to avoid a ban. However, given the fact that a lot of these products aren’t even selling on the market right now, a ban wouldn’t do much good to Apple anyway.
Apple wants to prevent Samsung from selling products taking advantage of the patents described above
According to Samsung, currently there’s just one device in circulation that takes advantage of the features in question. For its part, the Korean tech giant doesn’t accept a defeat and is looking to have the full Court of Appeals review today’s decision.
“We want to reassure our millions of loyal customers that all of our flagship smartphones, which are wanted and loved by American customers, will remain for sale and available for customer service support in the US,” the company says.
Apple, on the other hand, made sure to throw another shovel of dirt in Samsung's direction, by releasing the following statement:
“(The ruling) reinforces what courts around the world have already found: that Samsung willfully stole our ideas and copied our products. We are fighting to defend the hard work that goes into beloved products like the iPhone, which our employees devote their lives to designing and delivering to our customers.”
Interestingly, a lot of big names from the tech industry, including eBay, Facebook, Google, HP and others, have sided with Samsung on this one. Back in July, they argued in a court filing with the Federal Circuit Court that a ruling in Apple’s favor would have “significant detrimental consequences for the continued development of useful modern technologies.”
The US Court of Appeals just didn’t look at things the same way.