U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh denied Apple’s request to ban 26 Samsung smartphones, despite the fact that a jury found Samsung guilty of infringing on Apple’s patents earlier this year. “The fact that Apple may have lost customers and downstream sales to Samsung is not enough to justify an injunction,” ruled Koh in a filing on Monday. “Samsung may have cut into Apple’s customer base somewhat, but there is no suggestion that Samsung will wipe out Apple’s customer base or force Apple out of the business of making smartphones.” Many of the devices are already no longer for sale. At the same time, Koh denied Samsung’s request for a new trial. Samsung alleged that the jury foreman withheld some information about his prior experience with litigation and wanted the $1.05 billion judgement vacated in its entirety.
Koh disagreed with Samsung’s allegations. Judge Koh has not made any rulings on the final amount of damages Samsung is to pay Apple. Separately, Samsung today said it would drop lawsuits filed against Apple in several European countries, including Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.K. “Samsung has decided to withdraw our injunction requests against Apple on the basis of our standard essential patents pending in European courts, in the interest of protecting consumer choice,” the company said in a statement.
Samsung was facing a European Commission investigation of its use of standard essential patents to wrangle licensing terms. The two companies still have patent battles underway in several other countries, including Australia and the U.S.
