Although Apple v. Samsung was decided in August, there has still been some bitterness between the two companies, and some collateral lawsuits have followed. But now the companies are approaching something more like a détente, with a little help from the courts of course.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh denied Apple’s request for a permanent injunction banning the sale of Samsung’s smartphones. Koh had imposed pretrial injunctions against Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus phone and Galaxy Tab tablet at Apple’s behest. The jury exonerated Samsung on the patent used to ban the Galaxy Tab, so its sales were allowed to proceed, and later the Federal Circuit reversed the ban on the Nexus as well. This ruling, Koh said, was binding legal precedent.
"Though Apple does have some interest in retaining certain features as exclusive to Apple," she wrote in her order, "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."
Now, on Tuesday, Samsung has said it will withdraw its requests for injunctions against Apple products in France, Germany, the U.K., Italy and the Netherlands, perhaps feeling they are no longer necessary in light of Koh’s ruling in the U.S.
“Samsung has decided to withdraw our injunction requests against Apple on the basis of our standard essential patents pending in European courts, in the interest of protecting consumer choice,” the company said in a statement.
This cooling of the tempers is not bound to last long, however. Koh is scheduled to hear a related patent dispute between the two companies in 2014 that deals with their newer products such as Apple’s iPhone 5 and Samsung’s Galaxy S III phone.
Read more at Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters.
For more InsideCounsel coverage of the never-ending Apple/Samsung saga, see below:
Apple seeks to add six new devices to Samsung patent suit
Apple must rewrite Samsung “apology ads” following reprimand from UK court
Apple, Samsung narrowly escape adverse inference instruction
Apple loses UK appeal over Samsung tablets, must run apology ads
