Appeals Court Says Apple can Block Patent Infringing Samsung Smartphones

A United States appeals court said Apple was entitled to a narrow order that prevents the Korean device maker from using Apple’s slide-to-unlock, autocorrect and quicklinks features.

This is an important issue, so Samsung may request that the appeals court hear it again in front of all of the Federal Circuit judges, rather than just the three-judge panel that came to this decision.

For Samsung, the decision applies to previous versions including the Note 2 and Galaxy S2 that have been outdated by existing devices like the S6.

The USA’s top patent court has said that Samsung should be banned from selling some of its older phones, unless certain features are disabled, due to its infringement of Apple’s patents. Apple says that Samsung’s use of its patents robs Apple products of their exclusiveness and forces it “to compete against its own innovation usurped by its largest and fiercest competitor”.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California earlier ruled Samsung had not infringed Apple’s patent intentionally.

So Apple won – but not much more than a Pyrrhic victory.

“Samsung has altered the software on its more recent devices to avoid being hauled back into the courtroom, but has vowed to challenge the latest ruling nonetheless”. A federal appeals court in June upheld a 2013 lower court ruling against Apple in the case.

“The public generally does not benefit when that competition comes at the expense of the patentee;s investment-backed property right”, U.S. Federal Circuit Judge Kimberly Moore wrote in the majority opinion.

That case was decided in May 2014 when Apple was awarded $120m (£76m) damages. “We want to reassure our millions of loyal customers that all of our flagship smartphones…will remain for sale and available for customer service support in the USA “.

The judge said the third patent in the case involved a spelling correction feature that Apple didn’t use. Samsung’s lawyers told the jury that Apple’s case was about its “holy war” against Google, quoting a comment from an internal email from late CEO Steve Jobs, and not truly aimed at Samsung. She described Apple’s patents in question as related to “minor features”. It was a legal error for the lower court to reject evidence that unique features drive phone sales – and that infringement causes irreparable harm. Apple has been awarded more than $600 million in damages so far, but Samsung is still pursuing appeals that could reduce the amount owed.