Apple Samsung patent spat takes another twist...
By Alun Williams - October 12, 2012


Having trouble keeping up with all the twists and turns and litigants and cases and locations of Android patent lawsuits? Well, you're not alone. And things are just getting messier...

Back in August, in an apparent legal blow to Samsung and Android, a Californian jury found in favour of Apple on all five points of the patent-infringement case, concerning the look-a-like designs of tablets and smartphones.
Now, highlights Foss Patents, a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has reversed the preliminary injunction. It seems, on the basis of legal technicalities - the waters are deep here - that the Federal Circuit concluded that Apple was not likely to prevail, ultimately, with its infringement claim, and that there was an "abuse of discretion" in granting the preliminary injunction.

The ruling has gone in Samsung's favour:

"It was abuse of discretion for the district court to find that Apple will be irreparably harmed in the absence of an injunction, and that Apple sufficiently established a causal nexus between the harm alleged and the infringing conduct. We hold that the district court abused its discretion in determining that Apple established a sufficient causal nexus."

According to Foss Patents:

The primary basis for this reversal is that the appeals court saw an abuse of discretion in Judge Koh's determination that Apple established a sufficient causal nexus between the alleged infringement and the irreparable harm it claimed to suffer. The appeals court agreed with Samsung that Apple had to show not only that the iPhone 4S is bought by many customers because of Siri but also that the functionality covered by the '604 patent truly drives sales of the Galaxy Nexus (which in turn harm Apple). If the Nexus infringed this patent but was bought by customers for different reasons, then the infringement wouldn't be causally-connected to Apple's potential loss of market share.