Judge Koh denies Apple’s latest attempt to ban Samsung products

Samsung has managed a small win in its long-winded patent war against Apple, as Apple’s request for a product ban has now officially been denied.

There are few patent battles that are as (in)famous as that of Samsung and Apple. As all of our readers likely know, back in 2012, Apple won a major court battle in Northern California and was awarded $1 billion in damages. Samsung has been fighting the amount of this award ever since.

At the time, Apple also requested a permanent sales ban on 23 Samsung devices that were said to infringe on three patents in particular: pinch-to-zoom, double-tap-to-zoom and the snap back patent. Luckily for Samsung, Apple was denied the request.

Of course, that was far from the end of it. After Samsung and Apple failed to reach an out-of-court agreement in their most recent trial, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh ruled that Samsung will in fact have to pay $930 million to Apple, a small adjustment over the $1.05 billion originally awarded to Apple back in 2012. As to be expected, Apple immediately attempted to get a permanent sales ban on infringing products in a new appeal.

After reconsidering the evidence, however, Koh has denied Apple’s request once again. As Judge Koh officially wrote:

The Court concludes that Apple simply has not met its burden of proof to warrant an injunction. To persuade the Court to grant Apple such an extraordinary injunction—to bar such complex devices for incorporating three touchscreen software features—Apple bears the burden to prove that these three touchscreen software features drive consumer demand for Samsung’s products. Apple has not met this burden.

While Apple did attempt to provide evidence through a survey that suggested folks are more willing to buy a smartphone when it has a particular set of features, Koh said the survey did little to prove that the actual patents in question were a driving reason for Samsung’s product sales.

Although that’s the end of it for now, it’s fairly likely that there will be more appeals related to the case in the not-too-distant future. Apple and Samsung are also scheduled to return to California in April for a courtroom battle over a separate set of patents that Apple accuses Samsung of violating.

What do you think of Samsung and Apple’s never-ending global court skirmishes, will the two parties ever reach an agreement or will they be fighting for years to come? Do you think that Apple is right to continue to pursue Samsung so aggressively? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!