In order to obtain a preliminary injunction, which is considered an extraordinary remedy in patent litigation, Apple had to prove that the asserted patents were likely infringed, likely valid, and that it would be irreparably harmed by Samsung’s sales of the Galaxy Nexus.
From there the judge concluded that Apple would suffer irreparable harm in the form of significant lost market share if sales of the competitive Galaxy Nexus, and its unified search capabilities, continued:.
The ruling was based primarily on the 8086604 patent, which is defined as a universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system.
Judge Koh reasoned that unlike the other three patents, the ’604 patent covered the highly valued unified search feature of Siri that contributed greatly to consumer demand for the iPhone 4S.
This could also refer to a unified spoken word interface like Siri, or Googles voice search.
On June 26, A US judge backed Apple Inc’s request to stop Samsung Electronics selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the United States, giving the iPhone maker a significant win in the global smartphone and tablet patent wars.
Although Apple won an injunction on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 earlier this week — also from Judge Koh — that tablet device is already obsolete and provided Apple with little more than a hollow victory.
”It is not clear that an injunction on Samsung’s accused devices,” said Koh in this ruling, “would prevent Apple from being irreparably harmed.In an earlier hearing, Koh seemed to be aware of the fact that the two devices were very similar in appearance.At one point, she held both tablets over her head and asked the lawyers from Samsung and Apple to tell her which one was which. Dan Levine, reporting for Reuters, said that it “took them a while to do so.
Earlier yesterday, Koh said in court that she would rule bytomorrow on Samsung’s request to delay the ban on US sales ofthe Galaxy 10.1 tablet.
Ciaran Song is a business journalist based in Seoul, Korea. Ciaran has a passion for financial markets and breaking news stories and loves writing about business news, stock market, and economic opinions that matters most to its audience. Ciaran spends a lot of time discovering and researching latest financial markets and industry news stories in order to make sure the latest and greatest stories are brought to you first on BigBoardNews.com.
