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Samsung working with US carriers to update phones facing injunction

Samsung working with US carriers to update phones facing injunction

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Samsung is actively speaking with US carriers about removing infringing features from the eight handsets Apple is seeking injunctions against, reports The Wall Street Journal.

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Galaxy S II Skyrocket AT&T
Galaxy S II Skyrocket AT&T

Samsung is actively speaking with US carriers about removing infringing features from the eight handsets Apple is seeking injunctions against, reports The Wall Street Journal. Of course, the company first plans to plead its case to Judge Lucy Koh in the hopes of preventing sales from being halted, but it's clear Samsung is also preparing for a worst case scenario in which Apple's requests are granted.

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Samsung has stated it has software workarounds for two patents the jury found were violated by a number of its devices. But thanks to Google, thee outlook may be even better than that. According to the court document Apple used to detail infringing products, Samsung has found methods to get around all three utility patents: multitouch scroll, bounceback, and tap-to-zoom. AT&T's Galaxy S II Skyrocket, for example, was found to violate none of those behaviors — owing to the fact that the Skyrocket shipped with Android 2.3.5, which removed bounceback from scroll lists and also addressed the other patents. Contrast that with earlier devices like AT&T's original Galaxy S II or the Droid Charge (which coincidentally is being advertised on Verizon's website today), and you can clearly see when Google and Samsung began making a conscious effort to skirt around Apple's patent portfolio.

Software can be updated, but hardware is permanent

Unfortunately, Samsung can't exactly change the design of its hardware with software updates, and seeing how nearly all eight devices infringe Apple's design patents, an injunction could be handed down despite Samsung's attempts to keep these phones on the market. We'll be following the proceedings closely, so you'll want to keep it here to find out which company gets its way.

Dan Seifert contributed to this article