Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Sales Ban Stays In Place, Despite Jury Ruling

Samsung took a pretty big hit when it lost to Apple in their high-profile patent suit last month, with the jury ruling that Samsung has to hand over more than $1 billion for patent infringement. It wasn't all doom and gloom for Samsung, however, as the jury found that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 wasn't actually infringing on one of Apple's design patents. The Galaxy Tab 10.1, as many of you will remember, was hit with a preliminary injunction back in June, banning it from sale in the US, because the court said that it was likely infringing on Apple's '889 design patent.

Since the jury found that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 wasn't infringing, Samsung naturally wants to get the injunction lifted so it can continue selling it in the US. That will probably happen, but it isn't going to happen now. Judge Lucy Koh has denied Samsung's request to lift the ban, writing in a Monday ruling that she can't lift it at the present moment because Samsung decided to appeal the injunction with a different court. Since Samsung went that route, jurisdiction no longer rests with Koh, so she can't lift the ban even if she wanted to.

It seems that she does want to though. She wrote in her ruling that if jurisdiction was with her court, the court would likely lift the ban, based on the fact that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 isn't infringing on that design patent. She also doesn't want to lift the ban during the appeal, only to have to impose the injunction again later, should Apple's motion for a permanent ban on the device eventually succeed (as it potentially could). So, it sounds like Samsung will be able to get the injunction on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 lifted eventually, but it won't as soon as Samsung probably wants.

For now, we play the waiting game. Both parties are scheduled to go before Judge Koh and December 6, and it's then that Apple will attempt to secure sales bans on 8 Samsung devices. Samsung, obviously, will be fighting for the right to keep selling the devices in question, so even though the jury has delivered its verdict, some of the biggest decisions in this case have yet to be made. Stay tuned, because things will only get more interesting from here.

[via FOSS Patents]