JURIST - Paper Chase: Federal Circuit reverses Samsung injunction, remands to lower court

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [official website] on Thursday reversed [order, PDF] an injunction issued by the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] against Samsung in an ongoing patent dispute with Apple [corporate websites]. Specifically, the Federal Circuit found [Reuters report] that "the district court abused its discretion in enjoining the sales of [Samsung's] Galaxy Nexus," a product that, according to Apple, constitutes infringement of a patent related to data search sources. Apple, however, was unable to show sufficient evidence of a "causal nexus" between its own products and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Said the court: "Regardless of the extent to which Apple may be injured by the sales of the Galaxy Nexus, there is not a sufficient showing that the harm flows from Samsung's alleged infringement." The case has been remanded to the Northern District of California for reconsideration.

Apple and Samsung have been embroiled in continuous patent litigation in courts around the world. In September, the Federal Circuit similarly ordered [JURIST report] the Northern District of California to reconsider an injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 [product backgrounder]. Only a week prior, Apple filed a motion [JURIST report] with the Northern District of California to prohibit Samsung from selling products in the US that supposedly infringe on Apple's patents. Also in September, Samsung announced [JURIST report] that it will be adding the iPhone5 [product backgrounder] to a new patent infringement suit against Apple. A judge for the US International Trade Commission (ITC) [official website] also ruled [JURIST report] that month that Apple products do not infringe on Samsung's patents. In August, Apple won a $1.05 billion judgment [JURIST report] against Samsung in a separate case in the Northern District of California that covered everything from the shape and design of the competing companies' tablets and smartphones to the technology employed in the devices' software interface. Following the jury award, Apple moved to block [JURIST report] eight Samsung products from being produced and sold in the US. Also in August, a South Korean court found that Apple and Samsung had violated each others' patents [JURIST report] and banned the sales of some of the companies' products in the country. In July, a UK court ruled [JURIST report] that Samsung tablets do not infringe on Apple's design.