A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday rejected Apple's bid to impose a ban on nine Samsung smartphones for patent infringement.
The legal dispute between the two biggest smartphone tech companies in the world, Apple and Samsung, is one of the most high-profile litigations in the US. After both tech giants agreed to drop all patent disputes outside the US earlier this month, a federal judge on Wednesday denied Apple's dig at seeking a permanent ban against sales of older Samsung smartphones in the country.
Judge Lucy Koh of the U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, who is overseeing the lawsuits between the two companies, ruled against Apple after the Cupertino-based tech giant failed to prove Samsung's infringement of its patents had an impact on iPhone sales. The smartphones in question include the Admire, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S2, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, Galaxy S3 and Stratosphere.
Judge Koh's ruling comes nearly four months after Apple convinced the jury that Samsung had infringed its patents by using the technology found in iPhone. The jury awarded Apple with $119 million in damages in May, well below the $2.2 billion figure Apple sought in its latest round of legal dispute. Apple used its victory to seek a permanent ban on the sales of Samsung smartphones in the U.S.
"Apple has not established that it suffered significant harm in the form of either lost sales or reputational injury," Judge Koh ruled, according to a court ruling copy obtained by ARS Technica. "Moreover, Apple has not shown that it suffered any of these alleged harms because Samsung infringed Apple's patents."
According to the tech site's report, Koh's ruling against Apple's injunction isn't the first time. In 2012, the U.S. judge declined Apple's request seeking a ban against Samsung, a move which was based on its victory of $1.05 billion in damages from the Korean tech giant. Apple later approached the International Trade Commission to grant a U.S. trade ban on Samsung phones infringing its patents in the 2012 case. The request was accepted and a ban was placed on Samsung phones, which had a small market share.
In the last two years, Apple has received nearly $930 million in damages from Samsung from the San Jose federal court.
