A federal judge has rejected Apple’s attempt to block the sale of several older Samsung smartphones that copied features in the iPhone.
Wednesday’s rebuff comes nearly four months after a jury awarded Apple $119 million damages or Samsung’s infringements on technology used in the trend-setting iPhone. The amount was well below the $2.2 billion damages that Apple had been seeking in the latest round of legal wrangling between the world’s two leading smartphone makers since the tussle began four years ago.
Apple wanted U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, Calif., to issue an order that would have prevented future U.S. sales of nine Samsung phone models that infringed on the iPhone.
Koh refused, saying Apple hadn’t adequately proved Samsung’s intellectual theft had hurt its sales or diminished its reputation for innovation. She noted that Apple previously had licensed some of the features that Samsung infringed upon to other smartphone makers.
In its arguments, Samsung argued that the damages awarded to Apple amounted to a royalty payment for its past and future infringements on the patents at issue.
The patents covered the auto-correction feature in the iPhone’s keyboard, the method to create links for e-mail addresses and phone numbers appearing in text, and the swiping gesture for unlocking the phone’s display screen.
Apple is expected to unveil the eighth generation of the iPhone early next month.
Apple had wanted to ban the U.S. sale of the Admire, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note II, Galaxy S II, Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S II Skyrocket, Galaxy S III, and Stratosphere. The devices are powered by Google’s Android operating system, software that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had lambasted as a blatant rip-off of the iPhone.
