Fans of Samsung prepare to smile: a U.S. appeals court has ruled that a lower court can take a second look at the sales ban of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet device.
After a lengthy and bruising legal battle with Apple, the trial’s jury decided that Samsung had not in fact committed patent infringement on the issue that led to an injunction banning the sale of its Tab tablet device. Put another way, the jury decided that Samsung hadn’t in fact breached Apple’s IP in the way that was claimed to cause the sales blockage of its hardware.
However, the injunction couldn’t be lifted as Samsung had appealed the ruling, moving it into a sort of legal quagmire. Friday’s ruling clears the path for it to be looked at again. According to Reuters, this means that U.S. Judge Lucy Koh can now “consider the issue.”
Judge Koh became something of a cult figure in tech circles during the trial between the two giants for her sharp wording and scant patience for tactics that she found slow and ponderous.
If you aren’t brushed up on the legal spat between Apple and Samsung, don’t worry; it’s but one of the larger battlefield of IP conflicts going on at the moment. What matters in this moment is that even though Samsung took a spanking at the hands of Cupertino in court, the foundational argument for the banning of its tablet’s sales here in the United States has been undermined, and the injunction itself is now in danger.
That’s good news for fans of Samsung’s devices, and likely irksome to those in Apple’s corner.
Top Image Credit: opopododo
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