One has to wonder how long Apple and Samsung will be at each other’s legal throats as yet another judgement has been reached in the patent battle that started in early 2011. I was not really surprised to find that there is actually a Wikipedia article about it, which can bring you up to speed if necessary. The latest set of decisions to come down from Federal Judge Lucy Koh awarded Apple approximately $930 million in damages relating to patent infringements on the part of Samsung. There’s your win. Unfortunately for Apple, Judge Koh denied Apple’s request for a permanent injunction blocking the sales of devices that infringed on those patents in America. There’s your lose.
This decision came about because Apple’s request was based on the accusation that the use of the patented features in Samsung devices determined key buying decisions made by consumers. Alas, despite commissioning a survey to prove these features were the reason that people chose Samsung products, the results were inconclusive and were not sufficient to convince Judge Koh that the features were not the sole reason for purchasing decisions.
In both cases, the companies have the opportunity to appeal the decisions, but even if neither of them do, there are many more patent battles ahead to be dealt with. While a lot of people would consider this to be a case of bickering and nitpicking, these cases are serving to set a defining set of precedents. The end results of the Apple and Samsung disputes will likely determine how future legal battles of this type are handled. More specific to this case, if a company ever wants to attempt to block the sale of any competitor’s products, they will have to come up with some pretty ironclad evidence to convince the courts to allow it.