Samsung and Apple are no strangers to the courtroom. They are both often found in one, fighting claims from others or trying to establish cases against others. That said, they seem to mostly find themselves in the same courtroom, battling out various patents. Not to mention, in courts all over the world. To be fair, most of their cases have been settled in recent times, although, in California, they are still going tooth and nail at each other.
The latest chapter in what seems to be the never-ending lawsuit occurred today when Apple was seeking to obtain a judgement to stop Samsung from using any product which infringes on any Apple patent. To throw a few examples out there and offered by Apple are ‘slide-to-unlock’, ‘quick links’ and ‘auto-correct’. Apple wants the judgment applied so that Samsung can no longer sell any products adopting any of their patent technology. However, Samsung were quick to point out that they no longer sell any products using these types of technology and as such any injection would be useless at best. Of course, this did not bode too well with the judge who retorted by asking Samsung why they are fighting the injunction in the first place then. Further adding, that if this was the case, it was a waste of the court’s time.
However, in terms of the actual judgement, it seems the biggest issue Apple are currently having is not convincing the Judge that Samsung are infringing, but instead convincing the Judge that such infringing is causing Apple any harm. While Apple are seeking to forbid Samsung from using such tech (as it is causing them ‘irreparable harm’), the Judge found this strange as they already licence the tech to a number of other manufacturers “You’ve already licensed these patents up the wazoo!” Judge Moore noted. Further adding “You’ve licensed them to everyone. So why is it irreparable harm if Samsung uses the patents?” Of course, none of this is unlikely to stop Apple trying to push forward with the injunction. Anything Apple can do to try and slow down android’s largest manufacturer, they will do.