Appeals Court Overturns Sales Ban on Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Prior to Apple's patent trial win over Samsung, the company was awarded an injunction by Judge Lucy Koh barring U.S. sales of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone. As noted by The Next Web, a federal appeals court today reversed the ban on the grounds that Apple would not be sufficiently harmed by the alleged infringement.

NewImage
The appeals court found that the feature was indeed not integral to the success of the Galaxy Nexus, ruling that the lower court "abused its discretion" in issuing the original injunction. The Next Web notes:

The preliminary injunction on the Samsung smartphone had been granted as of June 30th by U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh, who eventually conducted the Apple v. Samsung patent trial. The ruling was based primarily on the 8086604 patent, which is defined as a “universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system.” The full patent appears to relate to a unified search tool that can be used to find a variety of different items via one indexed database. This could also refer to a unified spoken word interface like Siri, or Google’s voice search.

At the time, Koh said that “Apple has articulated a plausible theory of irreparable harm” due to a “long-term loss of market share” and “losses of downstream sales.”

The appeals court, however, disagreed with Koh's ruling that Apple had shown adequate threat of irreparable harm.

Samsung and Google developed a software workaround or the patent in question and deployed it shortly after the injunction went into effect. With the ban now lifted, the workaround appears to no longer be necessary. The full order [PDF] is available from the U.S. Courts website.

Update 11:51 AM: Our initial report seems to have generated some confusion over the exact rationale for the appeals court's decision to overturn the injunction. The appeals court ruled that Apple did not sufficiently show that sales of the Galaxy Nexus benefited from the inclusion of the unified search feature that is the subject of the patent. Given that view, the lower court was ruled to have overstepped its bounds in issuing the injunction on the belief that Apple would be caused irreparable harm by allowing sales of the Galaxy Nexus to continue.

In other words, it may very well be that the accused product would sell almost as well without incorporating the patented feature. And in that case, even if the competitive injury that results from selling the accused device is substantial, the harm that flows from the alleged infringement (the only harm that should count) is not.

The appeals court's decision was not based upon Samsung's earlier argument that sales of the Galaxy Nexus had been so "minuscule" as to not be a threat to Apple. We have also removed a quote from The Next Web's report that when taken out of context suggests that this was at least a partial reason for the overturning of the injunction.

Popular Stories

iOS 19 Mock WWDC25 Feature

iOS 19 Expected to Run on These iPhones

Monday March 31, 2025 5:28 pm PDT by
iOS 19 will not be available on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or the iPhone XS Max, according a private account on social media site X that has accurately provided information on device compatibility in the past. The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all have an A12 Bionic chip, so it looks like iOS 19 will discontinue support for that chip. All other iPhones that run iOS 18 are expected...
watchOS 11 Thumb 2 1

Apple Releases watchOS 11.4 With Sleep Alarm Update

Tuesday April 1, 2025 10:34 am PDT by
Apple today released watchOS 11.4, the fourth major update to the operating system that runs on the Apple Watch. watchOS 11.4 is compatible with the Apple Watch Series 6 and later, all Apple Watch Ultra models, and the Apple Watch SE 2. watchOS 11.4 can be downloaded on a connected iPhone by opening up the Apple Watch app and going to General > Software Update. To install the new software,...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4

Monday March 31, 2025 11:27 am PDT by
Apple today released new firmware updates for all AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 models. The new firmware is version 7E93, up from the 7B21 firmware that was installed on the AirPods Pro 2 and the 7B20 firmware available on the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC. It is not immediately clear what new features or changes are included in the new firmware, but we'll update this article should we find ...
maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:03 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
Apple Card iPhone 16 Pro Feature

Visa and American Express Vying to Win Apple Card Deal in 'Fierce' Fight

Tuesday April 1, 2025 1:50 pm PDT by
Visa wants to pay Apple approximately $100 million to be the new payment network for the Apple Card, reports The Wall Street Journal. As of right now, the Apple Card is on the Mastercard payment network, but that is set to change because Apple is ending its partnership with Goldman Sachs. Both American Express and Visa are vying to replace Mastercard as Apple's card services provider, while...
iOS 18

Apple Seeds First Beta of iOS 18.5 to Developers

Wednesday April 2, 2025 10:11 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 18.5 and iPadOS 18.5 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming just two days after Apple released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4. iOS 18.5 and iPadOS 18.5 can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software Update. We don't yet know what Apple is introducing in the iOS 18.5...

Top Rated Comments

samcraig Avatar
163 months ago
So it's a big deal when Apple "wins" - but when that win is overturned - who cares? Interesting.
Score: 49 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Gasu E. Avatar
163 months ago
"Nobody wants our product; therefore, a ban is unnecessary."
Score: 43 Votes (Like | Disagree)
the read Avatar
163 months ago
I'm happy Apple have not succeeded at this.

Samsung and Google have a great product and we all deserve the choice to buy it if we want.

Competition is great. My money is going on Samsung for my next phone. 4 years on iOS has been disappointing to say the least.
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kenypowa Avatar
163 months ago
So many sour Apples on this forum. Galaxy Nexus / Jelly Bean is such a major leap forward compared to iOS6.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
striker33 Avatar
163 months ago
So basically, it doesnt matter if you steal someone else's property, as long as you are making very little money from it.

Makes sense.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
decimortis Avatar
163 months ago
ok bye

Comments like this always boil my blood.
He/she made a comment based on personal opinion and so suddenly it's "ok bye" like they are leaving some illustrious club? The never said they were leaving MacRumors or other areas of Apple products.
Come on people, it's a PHONE. Get over yourselves.

/rage
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)