Apple is unable to get the sales ban on the Samsung GALAXY Nexus put back into effect

Last October, the U.S Court of Appeals reversed a sales ban on the Samsung GALAXY Nexus that had been ordered by Judge Lucy Koh. In reversing Koh, the Appeals Court ruled that she had abused her discretion in agreeing to the injunction on the stock Android phone. The decision in October by the Appeals Court also made it harder for a sales ban to be issued against a device based on patents covering a specific feature on a phone. The precedent that the ruling delivers allows Samsung to keep selling its products even while both Apple and Samsung prepare for another patent trial in 2014. In addition, Koh referred to the October decision in her ruling not to award Apple permanent bans against specific smartphones manufactured by the Korean based company.

Recently, Apple had requested that the entire Federal Circuit of Appeals, made up of 9 judges, hear the case at once in what is known as an en banc review. Apple was seeking a reinstatement of the sales ban on the Samsung GALAXY Nexus that was put into place last Summer before being overturned. It is very rare to get such a review, so the fact that Apple's request was denied is not exactly a surprise. The patent in question is the '604 patent, also known as the Siri patent, which deals with universal search on a smartphone. To get the sales ban, Apple would have had to prove that demand for the Samsung GALAXY Nexus was from the infringing feature, something hard to prove in this day and age of feature-rich smartphones.

Apple could decide to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, but usually business conflicts like this one do not meet the guidelines of a Supreme Court case.

source: Reuters, TheVerge via TUAW

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