The South Korean company was viciously hurt by the ban on sales of its tablets, though ultimately the jury found that Samsung was not guilty of violating the patent for whose supposed infringement the said sales ban had been issued. Following Samsung’s appeal on the matter, Koh tried to wash her hands off the hurtful injunction claiming that she was powerless to do anything about the ban as Samsung had already approached the appeals court over the matter.
However, the injustice was not lost on the Washington Circuit Court of Appeals, which on Friday, said that Koh could now reconsider the issue and is empowered to take her decision on the sales ban issued by her on suspecting a patent infringement, which Samsung did not commit, according to the jury.
The only results from the litigation seem to be huge losses dealt to the South Korean Company and the establishment of the fact that Apple holds a patent on rectangles with rounded corners – which of course sounds absurd, but nevertheless seems to be the fulcrum of Apple’s win.
The decision by the Federal U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals puts opponents of Samsung on the wrong foot, as they had been trying their level best to keep the South Korean company off the U.S. market over and beyond the holiday season. Samsung is just one month away from unveiling the second generation of Note, the stylus-equipped tablet that is one of its most successful products.
The same U.S. jury that found Samsung had not infringed the patents for which a ban on sales of Galaxy tablets had been issued, had also found that Samsung had copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad and awarded $10.5 billion to Apple in damages.
Apple and Samsung, the two top smartphone manufacturers of the world are dueling in the courts of at least 10 countries over intellectual rights as they move to dominate the lucrative market of tablets.