Judge deals blow to Apple in Samsung fight

A district court judge has denied Apple’s attempt for a permanent injunction against Samsung’s devices, in a setback for the tech giant’s fight over patents.

Judge Lucy Koh filed paperwork early on Thursday to not ban 23 of the Korean company’s products that were ruled to have infringed on Apple’s patents for touchscreen functions like being able to pinch a screen to zoom in.   

“Having considered the parties’ arguments, the briefing, the relevant law, and the record in this case, the Court concludes that Apple has not established that it is entitled to the permanent injunction it seeks,” she wrote in the decision.

{mosads}“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.”

Koh’s ruling was not entirely a setback for Apple. She also upheld an award of $290 million for the company, which a jury decided it was owed in November, on top of the $640 million in damages that have previously been awarded to Apple in the case.

In 2012, a jury sided with Apple in deciding that Samsung had infringed on a series of its patents in its products, and awarded the California-based firm about $1 billion in damages.

Koh decided not to ban the offending Samsung products at the time, however, a decision that Apple appealed in December 2012. That set the stage for oral arguments that took place in January.

The two smartphone titans are set to meet in court again this month, over a different set of contested patents.