In another setback for Samsung today, a US judge rejected Samsung’s request to lift the injunction against United States sales of the Galaxy Tab, a tablet computer than runs Google’s Android and competes with the iPad.
As we reported last week, US District Judge Lucy Koh granted Apple’s request to block any US sale of the tablet. Apple claims that the Galaxy Tab infringes on several of Apple’s patents that apply to it’s iOS devices and operating system. Samsung had appealed the court to stay the injunction pending resolution of an appeal, but today’s judgement seems unequivocal.
The whole Apple vs Samsung battle has gotten complex lately, with Apple firing off salvos on the patent areas that the Samsung devices allegedly infringe. It may seem at times more like schoolyard kids calling each other out over essentially trivial flaws one sees in another.
Perhaps this continues to be Steve Jobs’ legacy of “thermonuclear war” upon the Android operating system, as we see first HTC and now Samsung being fought by Apple. Since Windows phones and Blackberries are not in the line of fire, is this because they don’t threaten Apple’s core smartphone business, as Google-flavored devices do?
It’s a hard call to make from outside the courtroom and trade commission, of course, but it does seem like the courts see merit in Apple’s claims against Samsung, but the trade commission does not see the same in any of Apple’s complaint about HTC phones. That implies, to me, at least, that there are some actual issues of patent infringement here. Of course, I’m not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV.
Source: Reuters
