Archive for June 30th, 2012

Apple take down Google and Samsung in the patent war

In a stunning decision late Friday, Android (and especially Samsung) has been dealt a potentially serious blow by the on-going patent wars with Apple. US District Court Judge Lucy Koh rendered a decision in favour of Apple’s injunction to block sales of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in the United States. The patent at issue has to deal with database mining capabilities in Apple’s Siri voice assistant. Here is a quote from the Judge’s ruling,

"Apple has shown that the ‘604 Patented feature is core to Siri’s functionality. Accordingly, the court finds that Apple has adequately established the requisite causal nexus between Samsung’s alleged infringement of the ‘604 Patent and Apple’s risk of suffering irreparable harm. In sum, Apple has shown a likelihood of establishing both infringement and validity."

This is the second time this week that Judge Koh rendered a decision in favour of Apple’s injunctions versus Samsung. Earlier in the week, Judge Koh also ruled in favour of Apple’s injunction to stop sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the United States. In that case, Apple already posted a $2.6 Million Dollar bond to block sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1. This is done to pay for legal costs and potential damages in case Apple’s injunction loses on appeal.
In this patent infringement case against the Galaxy Nexus, Apple must post a $95.6 Million dollar bond before the phone is blocked for sale in the United States. That will likely happen sometime early next week.
Here is a quote from the Yahoo article detailing responses from both Google and Samsung,