Apple made an opposition filing on Tuesday on Samsung’s motion to lift the U.S. ban on sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Apple had won a preliminary injunction as part of its ongoing legal battle with Samsung over mobile device patent infringement claims.
Samsung has been pushing to get the injunction lifted ever since Apple’s big courtroom win last month where a jury ruled the electronics maker was willfully infringing on several Apple patents. As part of that ruling, however, the jury said Samsung wasn’t infringing on the iPad-related patents included in the complaint — which also happen to be the patents Apple used when requesting its preliminary injunction.
Samsung may have some trouble convincing the judge overseeing the case, Judge Lucy Koh, to remand the injunction, in spite of the jury’s ruling. It all goes back to earlier comments Samsung made.
“When Judge Koh denied Samsung’s request to stay the injunction a few months ago, she referred to Samsung’s statements on the absence of major harm, for example, “that ‘sales of the accused Galaxy Tab 10.1 will soon fall to zero’ because it is near ‘the end of its product lifecycle,’ and that the injunction would not have ‘a significant impact’ on its business since ‘the successor model to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is already on the market,'” said Florian Mueller of Foss Patents. “Apple’s brief today notes that Samsung wanted to have those passages redacted, but Judge Koh decided that these should be in the public record.”
Mueller says Samsung’s earlier statements contradict its motion for an injunction stay, and could work in Apple’s favor. Samsung’s chances of convincing the court to lift the sales ban greatly diminish since the company itself went on record says it wouldn’t have much impact on product sales.
Apple was awarded over $1 billion US in damages, an award Samsung is trying to get reduced or overturned.
