Apple wins US ban on older model Samsung smartphones

The ban forbids Samsung smartphones that include certain features, such as the automatic word correction used in earlier devices, as well as "slide-to-unlock", from being marketed in the country. Google and Facebook were among several Silicon Valley IT companies that filed a brief backing Samsung to the federal circuit court in the legal battle over smartphone patent infringements, the online version of the United States economic weekly Fortune reported on January 18.

Samsung appealed a San Jose jury's August 2012 verdict that it violated Apple's patent or trademark rights in 23 products, such as the Galaxy S2 smartphone, as well as about $930 million in damages awarded to the iPhone maker.

A permanent injunction was warranted because Apple would suffer losses and irreparable harm if Samsung continued to make use of the patents, said Judge Koh during the trial proceedings.

An injunction, preferably alongside a huge damages claim, is probably everything Apple ever wanted out of this case, as the injunction effectively bars Samsung from developing, selling, importing or advertising software that infringes on Apple's patents. It remains to be seen, however, how manufacturers manage to get around this and build phones that won't infringe on any of their rivals' patents.

So this ruling does favor Apple in the ongoing patent war with Samsung, but it is in the end completely pointless.

A Samsung representative told the site, "Samsung can confirm that the Note 5 internal S Pen mechanism has been changed to avoid the issue caused by inserting the S Pen incorrectly".

"We are very disappointed", a Samsung spokesperson told Bloomberg's South Korea bureau in a statement. Now, Samsung is releasing a few entry-level and mid-range smartphones also known as Galaxy A and Galaxy J. Today we're going to talk about the Galaxy J7 (2 generation) device that was spotted on the GFXBench benchmark.

Commenting on the verdict, Samsung claimed that Apple has abused the judicial system and created a bad legal precedent.

Meanwhile, in addition to the tech companies, Samsung has enlisted support from various groups hoping the Supreme Court will clarify the patent issues in the showdown with Apple. Apple was fighting for an injunction ruling to be put into effect immediately instead of the usual 30-day deadline, but Judge Koh rejected the request.