Samsung wins: Appeal Court lifts ban on Nexus in the US

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Published time: October 12, 2012 09:06
Edited time: October 12, 2012 13:06

The US Court of Appeals has overturned a ban on sales of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus phone imposed in July by a California court due to the patent dispute between Samsung and Apple.

­The Washington appeals court said Apple had failed to prove that any of the patent violations it accused Samsung of in regards to the Galaxy Nexus phone would hurt Apple’s smartphone sales. It also ruled out that the California court had "abused its discretion in entering an injunction"  when it banned Nexus sales earlier this year.

Apple declined to comment, while Samsung has welcomed the court’s decision. "We will continue to take all appropriate measures to ensure the availability of our innovative products," the South Korean electronics company said in a statement.

The lifting of the ban is unlikely to significantly affect Samsung sales as the Gala[y Nexus is an aging model. But Samsung has a number of new tablets and smartphones including the recently released Galaxy III, which Apples has struggled to ban over alleged patent violations.

Apple began legal proceedings against Samsung last year. The US giant argued that Samsung has stolen numerous aspects of its smartphone and tablet designs and technologies. The company demanded over $2 billion in damages. In August a California court agreed with Apple, and ordered Samsung to pay $1bn. Samsung has now appealed against the judgement. Earlier this month a separate ban targeting the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was lifted after Samsung won at trial on that patent.

Currently Samsung and Apple are locked in a global patent battle in 10 countries. In August, a court in Tokyo dismissed Apple's claim on alleged patent infringement, while a South Korean court fined both companies for infringement of each others patent and imposed a limited sales ban on the infringing products in the country.