“Three weeks ago I reported on Apple having appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) the early December denial of a US-wide preliminary injunction against four Samsung Android products,” Florian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents. “On December 13, 2011, Apple brought a motion to expedite the appeals process. Two more briefings (probably a reply by Samsung and another by Apple) and three days later, the CAFC granted Apple’s motion. Accordingly, Apple had to file its opening brief on or before December 22, 2011; Samsung had until January 9, 2012 to file its opposition brief; and Apple had until January 16, 2012 for its reply brief and appendix. In that same order, the court noted that this case would be ‘scheduled on the March oral argument calendar if practicable.’”

“Apple filed an opening brief on December 22, but six days later it filed a notice of correction. But the court formally rejected both the original brief and the corrected brief yesterday (December 29) and set a new January 12, 2012 deadline for Apple’s (second) corrected brief. I haven’t seen a new scheduling order, but since the new deadline for Apple’s opening brief is three days after the original deadline for Samsung’s response to that one, there must be a delay of (presumably) two or three weeks,” Mueller reports. “It’s totally unclear why the CAFC ordered this do-over.”

Mueller writes, “This CAFC process could have major impact not only on Apple v. Samsung but on the industry at large.”

Read more in the full article, including Mueller’s opinion on Apple’s CAFC appeal, here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Florian Mueller" for the heads up.]