A federal judge late Monday rejected Apple's plea to ban phones from its chief rival for patent infringement.
Judge Lucy Koh rejected Apple's demands that Samsung be banned from selling its products in the U.S. because it illegally used Apple patents, according to the Associated Press. Since the three Samsung smartphones are still on the market, there will be little or no fallout. Previously a San Jose jury found that Samsung had infringed on Apple's iPhone patents to create its own smartphones.
"The phones at issue in this case contain a broad range of features, only a small fraction of which are covered by Apple's patents," Koh wrote in her ruling. "Though Apple does have some interest in retaining certain features as exclusive to Apple, it does not follow that entire products must be forever banned from the market because they incorporate, among their myriad features, a few narrow protected functions."
But Koh also denied Samsung's demands for a new trial because of juror misconduct.
Koh still has to decide on whether or not to lower the $1.05 billion of damages awarded to Apple in the August trial. As we reported last week, the judge seems likely to cut some of the cash, such as the $58 million award for using Apple's "tap-and-zoom" technology on Samsung's Prevail smartphone. Koh said that the patent violation doesn't merit such a high cost, and it would likely be about $8 million.
Whatever the court's decision, Apple has enough cash in its coffers to appeal it -- and likely will.
