“Judge Lucy Koh of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California has just granted Apple a preliminary injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, an Android-based smartphone co-developed by Samsung and Google,” Florian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents.
“The ruling is a huge win for Apple and Morrison & Foerster, the law firm working on this part of the litigation,” Mueller reports. “Apple and its lawyers convinced Judge Koh that the Galaxy Nexus likely infringes all four of the patents asserted in the preliminary injunction motion, and that all four of them are likely valid. But in the United States, injunctive relief is granted only if monetary damages are insufficient to make the right holder whole, and if other requirements are met. Courts apply the four-factor eBay v. MercExchange test. Apple’s motion passed that test with respect to the “Siri patent”, a patent on unified search. It must be a huge disappointment for Google to lose this lawsuit over a search patent.”
Mueller reports, “With respect to the other three patents at issue in this context — slide-to-unlock, data tapping and autocorrect –, Judge Koh was not convinced that those features drive consumer demand and that Samsung’s likely infringement causes irreparable harm. But Apple can still win an injunction when this case goes to trial, and even if it couldn’t prove an entitlement to injunctive relief over those patents at that stage, Samsung would be liable for significant damages.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What’s this? Are the rusty gears of justice finally beginning to turn? If so, may they promptly grind slavish copier Samsung into submission.
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