A California Federal Court has ruled in favor of Apple’s request for an expedited trial in its patent infringement case against Samsung in the state. The trial is set to start now on July 30, 2012, although Apple had hoped for an even earlier date in February.
Apple wins important trial scheduling fight against Samsung
Apple and Samsung have been locked in a legal battle over mobile device-related patent infringement claims for several months. Both companies have alleged that the other’s mobile devices use patented technologies without proper licensing. In addition to their U.S. lawsuit, both have filed similar claims in other countries, too.
“Samsung opposed any expedited schedule and didn’t even propose a specific trial date,” Florian Mueller of Foss Patents said. “Instead, Samsung highlighted that the median time to trial for patent cases in that district is 23 months, which would have corresponded to a trial date in March 2013.”
He added, “Judge Koh’s expedited trial date for Apple v. Samsung is 15.5 months after Apple’s original complaint.”
So far, there are 19 patent lawsuits between the two companies in nine different countries. As part of those cases, Samsung has agreed to not sell its Galaxy Tab tablet in Australia, and has been hit with two preliminary injunctions blocking the sale of some of its smartphone products in the European Union.