back to article Apple tried to get a ban on Galaxy, judge said: NO, NO, NO

The Apple-Samsung lawsuit in the US continues its inch-wise progress, with Judge Lucy Koh deciding against giving Apple a permanent injunction to stop Samsung selling smartphones – even though by now they are mostly obsolete. Apple won a settlement worth nearly $120m in May, with a jury deciding that Samsung had infringed …

  1. cyke1

    Reason they dropped all lawsuits outside the US was Apple didn't have the judges in their back pocket. Slide to unlock was ruled invalid everywhere outside the US.

    1. ThomH

      The international lawsuits were dropped by mutual consent — both Apple and Samsung agreed — and this specific story is about an American judge disagreeing with Apple and siding with Samsung.

    2. Bob Vistakin
      Devil

      That leaked email

      From: legal@apple.com

      To: tim.cook@apple.com

      Subject: She wants more

      Body:

      Tim,

      The usual plan isn't working. Advice is to hold back that shareholders dividend a while longer - suggest extra 10% above last time. If she keeps holding out suggest we activate plan B - "replacement", but the fallout might be ugly.

      Best

      Apple Legal, Cupertino

      1. ThomH

        Re: That leaked email

        http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/apple-samsung-patent-truce-150286 : “Samsung and Apple have agreed to drop all litigation between the two companies outside the United States,” Samsung told TechWeekEurope.

        http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/06/apple-samsung-drop-patent-lawsuits-outside-usa : "Samsung and Apple have agreed to drop all litigation between the two companies outside the United States," the South Korean company said in a statement.

        http://www.pcworld.com/article/2461940/apple-samsung-agree-to-settle-patent-disputes-outside-us.html : "Samsung and Apple have agreed to drop all litigation between the two companies outside the United States,” Samsung said in an emailed statement Wednesday.

        http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/samsung-apple-agree-to-drop-patent-disputes-outside-the-us-571426?site=classic : "Samsung and Apple have agreed to drop all litigation between the two companies outside the United States," Samsung said in a statement.

  2. Comments are attributed to your handle

    "Apple has not demonstrated that it will suffer irreparable harm to its reputation or goodwill as an innovator without an injunction"

    She's right - Apple has already accomplished this without Samsung's help.

    1. ThomH

      If anything, Apple would suffer further irreparable harm to its reputation or goodwill were it granted an injunction. At least, if further harm were possible.

      Unlike most here, who can't see beyond "this post says something positive about Apple, I will down vote it" or "this post says something positive about Google, I will down vote it", I give Apple plenty of credit for both the iPod and the iPhone. Both show a detailed comprehension of what non-technical people want from technology — i.e. they want to just plug the thing into the computer and have it suck the music in, no clicks required; they want their web pages to look right and, if crammed onto a tiny screen, they want some very easy means of navigation. Both products deserved their success.

      However, if you ask me to evaluate Apple as a company? Yeah, technically competent and historically marketing savvy (or, go on, you list the companies that made billions selling premium-priced UNIX computers to consumers) but now possessed of an avarice that has led them from PR blunder to PR blunder through over-deployment of the legal team.

      If it were corporeal, not a person I would like to go for a drink with.

  3. sisk

    Judge Koh ruled against Apple? It's about damn time. That should have happened when she denied the appeal that should have happened based on jury misconduct.

  4. Mark 85

    I guess it's official.

    If the judge says Apple is an innovator, I guess they are.

    1. Fluffy Bunny
      Angel

      Re: I guess it's official.

      No, the judge actually said " irreparable harm to its reputation or goodwill as an innovator ", which (in my book) means it never had any reputation to suffer harm to...

      1. ThomH

        Re: I guess it's official.

        Most people use the word incorrectly but I don't think Apple does. Per the dictionary, innovation is "[to] make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products". Notably: the changes don't have to be positive, the thing has to have been established previously.

        Therefore, if anything, Apple is the most innovative company. It never creates a new market, only enters one that already exists — i.e. is "something established" — and introduces new products which tend to change the market, objectively by dint of sales numbers if nothing else.

        Decide for yourself whether innovation should really the litmus test.

        It's the goodwill angle that I think is more damaging. Apple has hardly done much to accumulate or preserve that lately.

  5. Arctic fox
    Headmaster

    This attempt by Apple to continue to pursue the issue over phones that are......

    ........no longer on sale is a fairly typical example of how "BigCorp" (ie any large company) and their legal departments try to game the legal system. Apple are basically trying to create ammunition from old phones as precedent for renewed attacks on phones from Samsung that are current. I.e Their present legal shenanigans in this context are nothing more than a shell game. Until the judicial system in the US (it would probably require some form of judgment from the "Supremes") sends a very firm message to the American "Managerati" that they will personally be treated as vexatious litigants if they continue with such tactics I am afraid we will continue to see plenty more of this in the future.

    1. AdamT

      Re: This attempt by Apple to continue to pursue the issue over phones that are......

      Well, nothing has changed in the last two years given that I commented thusly in Aug 2012 (but it would be equally applicable today):

      .... [a hung jury] would be about the only way for the "lay person" to say: "We are fed up with you corporate titans using the legal system as the latest blunt instrument to attack each other when you could both be getting on with competing fairly and developing the next products because, yes, some of us like iThings and some of us don't but we'd like them _both_ to be available, please. Oh, and while we're on the subject of tech companies wasting time and money, WHERE'S OUR DAMN FLYING CAR?"

      1. Tom 13

        Re: This attempt by Apple to continue to pursue the issue over phones that are......

        Actually the usual way juries say FU in a case like this is they award plaintiff the win on merits, assign damages of $1, and tell both sides they have to pay their own legal bills.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apple wants to ban Galaxy phones because Galaxy phones have got really (some might say stupidly)big screens and Apple is yet to show the world how it invented really (Apple used to say stupidly) big screens on a phone with the iPhone 6.

    Be fair, how can Apple be expected to innovate when people keep doing stuff first?

  7. Bucky 2

    I find that Apple PRODUCTS seem quite nice.

    However, since Apple seems to always be suing one person or another, I don't dare actually OWN one of their products. Too risky.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    US Judge doesnt side with apple.. Say what.. Must have been holding the back hander wrong.

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