The US District Court in San Jose, California banned the sales of Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Nexus smartphone only days after it barred the sales of Samsung’s touch screen tablet Galaxy Tab 10.1.
The US District Court of Northern California sided with US smartphone maker Apple in a ruling issued June 29 (local time) in which it granted a preliminary sales injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus, reported Bloomberg and other foreign media sources Sunday. This ruling gave Apple its second victory in less than a week, as it won a sales ban against Galaxy Tab 10.1 earlier on June 26.
Apple has successfully blocked the launch of Samsung’s flagship models in its home ground market, and may now turn its focus to Galaxy S III, Samsung’s latest smartphone release, predict market experts.
Furthermore, Apple’s patent war may expand to include Google, a US-based tech giant that is collaborating with Samsung for many of the Korean maker’s Android phones.
Apple had requested a preliminary injunction against Galaxy Nexus, the reference phone made jointly by Samsung Electronics and Google, in February claiming the product violated four of its patented technology. Namely, Apple argues that Samsung has infringed on its unified search feature used for Apple’s computerized personal assistant Siri; the data tapping function that allows users to make phone calls by tapping numbers embedded in email, SMS, web pages, or documents; the swipe to unlock function; and its word recommendation feature for touchscreen typing. The court sided with Apple regarding the search engine feature, while echoing Apple’s suspicion in regards to the other claims.
“Although Samsung will necessarily be harmed by being forced to withdraw its product from the market before the merits can be determined after a full trial, the harm faced by Apple absent an injunction is greater. Apple’s interest in enforcing its patent rights is particularly strong because it has presented a strong case on the merits,” said US District Judge Lucy Koh in the ruling.
“Galaxy Nexus is a collaboration project between Samsung and Google. As such, we will respond by joining forces with Google,” said a Samsung spokesperson. “We will seek any and all legal recourse to make sure there is no glitch in our ability to deliver the products to the market.”
Samsung is believed to immediately file a motion to suspend the ruling and submit documents to appeal the decision.
[Written by Dae-ghi Kim – Samji Chung]
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