The preliminary injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet, granted by Judge Lucy Koh as part of the U.S. patent litigation between Apple and the Korean electronics company, was lifted late Monday after the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ordered Judge Koh to revisit the ban, FOSS Patents reported.
After weighing both the harm that Samsung suffered as a result of the Tab 10.1’s injunction, and the likelihood that the company will survive Apple’s motion to overrule the jury’s decision that cleared the tablet of infringement, Judge Koh dissolved the injunction, allowing Samsung to sell its tablet in the United States once again.
The injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was ordered in late June based on Judge Koh’s belief that Apple would prevail on its design patent claim against the device. In a surprising decision, the jury, which found infringement in many Samsung smartphones, decided that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 did not infringe on Apple’s design patents.
In response, Apple filed a motion asking the court to overrule the jury’s verdict. While it was within Judge Koh’s authority to keep the injunction in place until the court had ruled on Apple’s motion, she decided that the jury’s verdict and the alleged harm caused to Samsung by the injunction outweighed her own preliminary opinion that Apple may eventually win a permanent injunction against the device.
Apple and Samsung are now awaiting an injunction hearing, scheduled for December 6, during which Apple will seek both treble damages, as a result of the jury’s verdict largely in the company’s favor, and permanent injunctions against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and many Samsung smartphones that were found by the jury to have infringed.