Apple Wants Sales Ban on Over 20 Samsung Devices

Once again, Apple is looking to block Samsung from selling its smartphones and tablets in the U.S. under the claim of patent infringement. A new request made to District Judge Lucy Koh would ban more than 20 of the South Korean company’s devices, giving Apple the relief it claims it needs to prepare for “future infringement by Samsung.”
Koh previously overruled a similar request back in 2012, but Apple and Samsung’s return to court earlier this year opened the door for a fresh injunction from Cupertino. While Samsung has already modified a number of its devices to allow U.S. sales, Apple argues that these new models are designed to deceive the court, and are “not more than colorably different from those already found to infringe.”

As the world’s top competing smartphone makers, Apple and Samsung have faced off in court rooms around the world over the past few years. Most notably, the companies argued their cases in California in 2012, with the jury initially ruling that Samsung should pay Apple a little over $1 billion for patent infringement. That amount was later reduced to $600 million, until a retrial earlier this year where Judge Koh ruled that the South Korean company should pay an additional $290 million.
How Apple’s latest request for U.S. sales ban will play out is unclear, though it seems unlikely the court will actually block as many Samsung devices as Cupertino is demanding. Based on previous rulings, only devices that infringe on technology patents can be used, meaning that physical design won’t be a factor in any upcoming ban.

Source Bloomberg