Reuters reports Apple has been granted an injunction to ban Galaxy Nexus sales in the U.S., which comes to a blow to Samsung. Earlier in the week, Apple won a preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
According to Judge Lucy Koh:
“Apple has made a clear showing that, in the absence of a preliminary injunction, it is likely to lose substantial market share in the smartphone market and to lose substantial downstream sales of future smartphone purchases and tag-along products,” Judge Koh said in Friday’s ruling.
According to FOSS Patents, Apple won the ruling over the ‘Siri patent’ on unified search:
Apple and its lawyers convinced Judge Koh that the Galaxy Nexus likely infringes all four of the patents asserted in the preliminary injunction motion, and that all four of them are likely valid. But in the United States, injunctive relief is granted only if monetary damages are insufficient to make the right holder whole, and if other requirements are met. Courts apply the four-factor eBay v. MercExchange test. Apple’s motion passed that test with respect to the “Siri patent”, a patent on unified search.
Apple is set to post a bond of $95,637,141.60 for the injunction to take effect, with Samsung seen to appeal and move for a stay. Samsung has long been accused of copying Apple’s products (the comparisons speak for themselves) and this comes as another blow to them. Steve Jobs had made it clear before that Android was a ‘stolen product’ and he was ready to go ‘thermonuclear’ against Google.
