Apple wins appeal over smartphone patents

Since Samsung has largely dropped the relevant features, the matter could mean even more to other companies, if Apple uses the decision to target others who it sees as infringing on its patents. Given that Samsung’s mobile business is now focused on later iterations of those devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Note 5, the ruling will have only a minor effect on its bottom line.

The ruling issued Thursday by the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington vindicates Apple, but might not hurt Samsung too much. In August the US District Court for the Northern District of California refused Apple’s request to ban Samsung from selling any of its products that infringed on Apple’s patented technology.

Part of today’s ruling is based on case law established by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006. Apple obtained numerous patents prior to the iPhone’s release to protect multiple new technologies it had developed for the device, including a “slide-to-unlock” feature. Apple has been awarded more than $600 million in damages so far, but Samsung is still pursuing appeals that could reduce the amount owed. Apple appealed, hoping to cover what it viewed as a crucial hole in that decision.

The court also ruled that: “Given this, the district court abused its discretion when it did not enjoin Samsung’s infringement”. Samsung emerged as Apple’s biggest rival in the smartphone market, making it the target of a legal onslaught that has continued long after Jobs’ death almost four years ago.

For now, however, Apple has a court victory to put in its arsenal.

After the event, neither Samsung nor Apple responded to comment requests, but what Samsung previously declared to Boomberg was that they “want to reassure our millions of loyal customers that all of our flagship smartphones, which are wanted and loved by American consumers, will remain for sale and available for customer service support in the U.S”.

During the 2014 trial, Samsung argued that Apple was in fact targeting software features for the most part developed by Google for its Android operating system, which ran the 10 Samsung products involved in the trial.