U.S. court denies Apple's injunction to stop sales of Samsung smart devices

Samsung Electronics Co. won a small but meaningful battle Wednesday after a U.S. court dismissed Apple Inc.'s bid to ban sales of its nine older models in the United States.

Judge Lucy H. Koh, a U.S. district judge in San Jose, California, rejected an injunction filed by the iPhone maker to block sales of nine Samsung smartphone lines, including the Galaxy S3, for infringing its patented technologies.

The court decision came after a U.S. federal jury concluded in May that Samsung and Apple have infringed each other's patents on smartphones and other smart devices.

Judge Koh concluded that Apple failed to prove its irreversible damages from continued sales of Samsung smartphones.

Apple did not respond to the latest court decision.

Samsung and Apple have been engaged in legal battles in the U.S. since April 2011, accusing each other of copying patented technologies in their smart devices. Apple's earlier bid to block sales of Samsung's older smartphones also had been rejected by the court.

The patent war had since spread to South Korea, Japan, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Britain, France, and Australia, but in an unexpected move that industry watchers say may be a sign of rapprochement, the two tech leaders agreed earlier this month to drop all lawsuits except patent suits in the U.S.

In June, the two sides had dropped their appeals with the U.S. International Trade Commission that had banned U.S. import of Samsung's smart gadgets.

In the patent suit, the latest ruling in March by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California favored Apple, ordering Samsung to pay $929 million for violating Apple's patents.

Calls have been growing on the two rivals to concentrate their resources on their business development instead of high-cost lawsuit fees, especially with market data showing them losing their market lead against rising Chinese competitors.

IDC Corp.'s data for second quarter said both Samsung and Apple lost their shares in the global smartphone market in the April-June period while Chinese players were increasing their sales with budget-priced models. (Yonhap)