Apple has been denied a bid to ban 26 Samsung products from sale in the U.S, stemming from an August ruling in which Samsung was found to violate Apple patents. Judge Lucy Koh ruled that a sales ban would be too broad. “The phones at issue in this case contain a broad range of features, only a small fraction of which are covered by Apple’s patents,” Koh wrote.
“Though Apple does have some interest in retaining certain features as exclusive to Apple, it does not follow that entire products must be forever banned from the market because they incorporate, among their myriad features, a few narrow protected functions.” Koh also noted that many of the devices targeted by Apple for the ban are no longer on sale.
Samsung, however, has been denied its request for dismissal and a new trial based on jury misconduct allegations. While Samsung alleged the Apple trial was tainted due to the juror misconduct related to jury foreman Velvin Hogan’s involvement with Seagate — Samsung acquired Seagate’s HDD division late last year — Koh disagreed.
Koh determined Samsung could have resolved its concerns and issues prior to trial by exercising “reasonable diligence” in questioning Hogan.
Meanwhile, Samsung has announced it will drop injunction requests against Apple for standard essential patent infringement in Germany, France, Italy, the U.K., and the Netherlands. It’s unclear at this point if Samsung has reached some kind of truce with Apple — at least in Europe — or if this will lead to less litigation down the line.
