Monday, August 27, 2012

Apple to request preliminary injunction against eight Samsung products in wake of jury verdict

As follow-up to Friday's Apple v. Samsung jury verdict and a subsequent order by Judge Koh, Apple has just specified against which Samsung products it is going to request a preliminary injunction ("preliminary" meaning that it would be in place until the court decides on a permanent injunction).

This is the table of the products chosen by Apple, showing which of the asserted intellectual property rights they infringe (click on the image to enlarge):

Each X reflects a jury finding in Apple's favor, with "Q" followed by a number identifying the related question on the verdict form.

I'll list the devices again:

  1. Galaxy S 4G

  2. Galaxy S2 AT&T

  3. Galaxy S2 Skyrocket

  4. Galaxy S2 T-Mobile

  5. Galaxy S2 Epic 4G

  6. Galaxy S Showcase

  7. Droid Charge

  8. Galaxy Prevail

All in all, the jury found 28 products to infringe some of Apple's intellectual property rights.

The business impact of a sales ban on these products per se would be very limited, and negligible compared to an injunction against Samsung's latest devices, especially the Galaxy S M;III, or upcoming ones like the Galaxy Note 2. But Apple will push for an injunction that will have an open-ended wording and include any product, even products that haven't been released yet, that infringes the same intellectual property in a way that is "no more than colorably different". Judge Koh's preliminary injunctions against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy Nexus smartphone had such an inclusive wording. On that basis, Apple could force Samsung to make changes to such products as the current flagship, the S III -- provided that Apple wins an injunction and that it can enforce it in the near term (it could also be stayed by the appeals court for the duration of an appeal).

Apple's product list indicates that Apple wants to obtain injunctive relief based on all of the intellectual property rights the jury found to be infringed. The question is now whether Judge Koh thinks this scope is too broad to hold a preliminary injunction hearing on September 20. We will know soon.

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