“Apple is fighting a strategic battle at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. It’s about nothing less than the question of whether Apple or other industry players will have a realistic chance to win U.S. utility patent injunctions (other than ITC import bans, which follow different rules) against multifunctional smartphones and tablet computers,” Florian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents.

“The stakes could hardly be higher,” Mueller writes. “A few days ago, Reuters‘ Dan Levine reported on this (the only general-interest media report on this topic that I’ve seen to date) and said that Apple faces ‘long odds’ in the eyes of certain experts. With the greatest respect for the people Reuters quoted and relied on, I disagree. It’s a significant challenge, but it’s not a long shot at this stage, considering that the Federal Circuit ordered Samsung to respond to Apple’s petition and that if the question raised here isn’t fundamental enough to warrant a rehearing, nothing else will.”

Much more in the full article – recommended – here.