Apple won't get to leapfrog the three-judge panel in its renewed request for a permanent injunction against Samsung's products. An appeals court ruled on Monday that Apple would still have to face a three-judge panel required as part of the appeals process—a process Apple hoped to skip in order to go straight to a full-court appeal. Meanwhile, Samsung gets to continue selling its devices in the US, despite the $1 billion verdict from 2012 saying the company violated Apple's patents.
Following last year's patent verdict, Apple asked the court for a permanent ban on the sale of Samsung's devices that were found to violate Apple's intellectual property. As we pointed out last August, the devices in question are mostly out-of-date smartphones that customers aren't likely to be buying anyway. Although some can still be purchased for cheap or free through US carriers, most aren't even available on the market in the US simply because of the normal product refresh cycle.
Apple wanted to ensure they couldn't be sold in the US at all, but the company was denied that request because the court felt Apple hadn't proven Samsung's infringement caused "irreparable harm." Apple naturally appealed that decision, but it requested to have the appeal expedited so the devices could be (potentially) banned sooner rather than later.
As noted by Reuters, the request wasn't likely to succeed to begin with, so Monday's rejection by the appeals court isn't a complete shock to those watching the case. However, Apple's petition certainly shows that the company views its own case as worthy of special treatment: it wanted to skip an otherwise required step in the appeals process. Whatever the case, the appeals court clearly doesn't agree, forcing Apple and Samsung to wait a little longer to find out whether Samsung's old phones should indeed be banned from the US.
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