US Court Says Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Injunction Can Be Appealed

A US appeals court has ruled that that a lower court should reconsider a temporary Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 injunction won by Apple against the sale of the device in the country.

The injunction was issued ahead of a major patent trial between Apple and Samsung, but despite Apple securing £664 million ($1bn) in damages in a comprehensive victory, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was found not have infringed any of Apple’s patents.

Samsung wanted the injunction lifted, but the US District Court of Northern California said that this was impossible as the company had already appealed. However Friday’s decision by the Federal US Circuit Court of Appeals means that Judge Lucy Koh can now reconsider the issue.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Injunction

In August, the court ordered Samsung to pay Apple just over $1 billion (£664m) in damages after finding that the Korean manufacturer had infringed a number of Apple’s patents in its smartphones and tablets. Apple has also filed a legal motion to have eight devices banned in the country.

This was less than the $2.5 billion (£1.6bn) that Apple was demanding, but the award still represented a significant blow to Samsung, wiping more than $12.5 billion (£7.5bn) off the value of the company.

However the saga is far from over, with Apple last month asking a court in San Jose to award it an additional $707 million (£436m) to compensate for the “damage to the iPhone’s product identity” caused by Samsung.

Samsung has requested a new trial, claiming that it did not receive fair treatment from the US jury and that the court’s constraints on time, witnesses and exhibits did not allow Samsung to present a fair defence for a patent case of this magnitude.

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