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BY EVAN THOMAS
ANCHOR NATHAN BYRNE
First the Galaxy Tab 10.1, now the Galaxy Nexus. The Next Web cites a Reuters report
that says Apple has won a preliminary injunction on U.S. sales of the Galaxy Nexus.
At issue this time was an Apple patent that covered unified information search and retrieval
— a system probably better known to consumers as Siri. District Court Judge Lucy Koh said
Apple had proven irreparable harm thanks to a “long-term loss of market share” that
Siri represented.
Immediately following the ruling, Apple issued its now-familiar statement on events. VentureBeat
picked it up.
“It’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone
and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging.
This kind of blatant copying is wrong and, as we’ve said many times before, we need
to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”
Samsung has yet to comment, but Engadget imagines Samsung’s going to fight this one the same
way it plans to appeal the Galaxy tab ruling — especially with the stakes as high as
they are.
“Samsung will no doubt try to appeal the dispute… there's a lot more urgency here
than with the outgoing Tab 10.1: the Galaxy Nexus is still a current-generation device,
and just became Google's Android 4.1 phone flagship.”
GigaOM explains: it’s the phone Google uses to spread the purest Android experience available.
Or rather, the phone it used to use.
“From Samsung’s standpoint, the news might not be quite as bad given that it just introduced
the Samsung Galaxy S III to great fanfare, but from Google’s standpoint, the news isn’t
very welcome. …if the injunction holds, Samsung won’t be able to sell those phones
in the U.S.”
But FOSS patents wonders — is the Galaxy SIII next? Apple could angle for the same
shutdown, based on the same patent.
“If Apple moved for a preliminary injunction against the S III now over the Siri patent,
it would be very likely to win, but it would have to accept a postponement of the trial
of its first lawsuit against Samsung. This is a tough choice to make, but a motion over
only one patent wouldn't necessarily cause a huge delay.”
In the meantime, The Verge points out, the fate of the Galaxy Nexus in the U.S. market
rests at trial.
“If Apple continues and wins on these infringement issues at trial, the preliminary injunction
could transform into a permanent injunction. However, if Samsung defeats Apple's claims
in front of a jury, the injunction would end.”
So for the moment, if you were considering a Galaxy Nexus you’re out of luck. And those
developers who got freebies from Google at I/O got them just in time.