U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh has denied Apple's request for a preliminary injunction against Samsung late Friday afternoon, one that would have halted sales of three Galaxy phones and the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Judge Koh found that any action halting the sales of these devices in the United States would not be necessary to keep Apple from being irreparably harmed, and denied the sales ban. This doesn't mean things are over between Samsung and Apple, who currently are involved in more than 20 legal battles in 10 different countries, as the case is still to be heard. This ruling was concerning the halting of sales only.
Of course both sides involved had little of value to say -- this is a legal drama and tight lips are a wise choice. Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet referred to previous statements about the case, saying that Samsung's "blatant copying is wrong" and Samsung spokesman Jason Kim said "This ruling confirms our long-held view that Apple's arguments lack merit". Whether the arguments truly lack merit is something the courts will have to decide later, but for now the products in question will remain on the shelves for the Holiday buying season.
Update: Reuters has updated their original story with more information from judge Koh's ruling, stating that "Apple has established a likelihood of success on the merits at trial" regarding some of the smartphone patents, and that "Apple would likely prove Samsung infringed one of its tablet patents. However, Apple had not shown that it was likely to overcome Samsung's challenges to the patent's validity." General consensus is that the suit will end with monetary damages more likely than any injunction. Whatever the outcome, it would be nice to see all these legal issues slow down at least a little.
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