US court lifts ban on Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

Sammy gets (a small) one in Apple's eye

By Anna Leach • Get more from this author

Posted in Law, 2nd October 2012 13:37 GMT

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Galaxy Tabs will go back on the shop shelves in America this week, as Samsung got one piece of good news from the patent court in California where its battle with Apple saw it handed a $1bn fine.

Samsung's Galaxy tab was banned in June following a ruling that it infringed a key design patent - D’889. That ruling was overturned by the jury decision on 24 August - one positive outcome for Samsung in the otherwise crushing judgment that landed it with the billion dollar headache.

Presiding Judge Lucy Koh has agreed with Samsung that the Galaxy Tab ban should be lifted promptly, and ended it yesterday. And it looks like Apple may lose $2.6m as a result.

Koh has demanded that the £2.6m bond Apple put down with the ban be held by the court, pending a determination on the damages that Samsung incurred as a result of the lost selling time.

The ban was lifted yesterday rather than on 24 August because Samsung had appealed the original ban ruling and it was processing through appeals, but as soon as Koh was re-awarded jurisdiction by the US Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, she promptly ended the ban.

Koh dismissed Apple's claim that the ban should remain in place until all Apple's post trial motions – including pleas to ban eight different Samsung devices – had been heard and resolved.

Buoyed by the Galaxy Tab ruling, Samsung has gone on the offensive again today adding the iPhone 5 onto a list of Apple devices that it wants to see banned. Sammy argue that the new Jesus mobe infringes two standards patents and six features patents. That case is scheduled to be heard in 2014. ®

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