The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has set an August 9th date for what will be an important confrontation between Apple and Samsung. The date has been set because of efforts by Apple to obtain an injunction on sales of some Samsung smartphones on the grounds of patent infringement.
Though Apple won its initial patent infringement claim against Samsung in a jury trial last year, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh refused to award Apple an injunction against Samsung smartphones, prompting the iPhone maker’s appeal.
Intellectual property expert Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents has been quoted as saying this could be the most important event in the Apple v. Samsung battle since last summer’s jury trial. He believes it could turn out to be even more important, as Apple’s victory last August may prove meaningless if the company doesn’t see any actions taken against Samsung for their infringement.
Koh refused to grant Apple’s initial request for an injunction, saying the infringed patents applied to only a “small fraction” of the features on the Samsung devices in question.
Apple also has yet to collect one thin dime form Samsung, even though the company was initially awarded $1.05 billion by a jury. 40% of the award, or about $450 million, was vacated in March of this year.
Samsung has been pushing back, notably on the so-called “rubber banding” patent owned by Apple. Samsung last week requested a new trial on that patent.
