Potentially Grim News for Android: Apple Blocks Sale of Samsung Galaxy Nexus in U.S.

[dgstorm]

In a stunning decision late Friday, Android (and especially Samsung) has been dealt a potentially serious blow by the ongoing patent wars with Apple. US District Court Judge Lucy Koh rendered a decision in favor of Apple's injunction to block sales of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in the United States. The patent at issue has to deal with database mining capabilities in Apple's Siri voice assistant. Here is a quote from the Judge's ruling,

"Apple has shown that the '604 Patented feature is core to Siri's functionality. Accordingly, the court finds that Apple has adequately established the requisite causal nexus between Samsung's alleged infringement of the '604 Patent and Apple's risk of suffering irreparable harm. In sum, Apple has shown a likelihood of establishing both infringement and validity."

This is the second time this week that Judge Koh rendered a decision in favor of Apple's injunctions versus Samsung. Earlier in the week, Judge Koh also ruled in favor of Apple's injunction to stop sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the United States. In that case, Apple already posted a $2.6 Million Dollar bond to block sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1. This is done to pay for legal costs and potential damages in case Apple's injunction loses on appeal.

In this patent infringement case against the Galaxy Nexus, Apple must post a $95.6 Million dollar bond before the phone is blocked for sale in the United States. That will likely happen sometime early next week.

Here is a quote from the Yahoo article detailing responses from both Google and Samsung,

"Were disappointed with this decision, but we believe the correct result will be reached as more evidence comes to light," Google said in an email response to an AFP inquiry.

Samsung vowed Saturday to "take all available measures" to fight the decision.

"Samsung is disappointed, as the court's ruling will restrict American consumer choice in the smartphone market," said the world's largest smartphone maker in a statement.

The company said it was working closely with Google to resolve the matter.

"Samsung will continue to take all available measures, including legal action, to ensure the Galaxy Nexus remains available to consumers," it added.

The worst part about this decision is the potential for Apple to now use this decision to block sales of other Samsung or Android devices with similar functionality. It's even possible the new Google Voice Search capabilities in the Google Nexus 7 tablet could come under fire.

Source: GalaxyNexusForum via Yahoo!

 

[jroc]

Its amazing...it really is.

Frankly...I'm getting tired of it. I may just limit my forum use to anything but the news sections, about to stop visiting mobile news sites, news sections, etc.

 

[tjk629]

Has Apple's products ever been banned? I mean in the past month we've had HTC and Samsung stuff banned from the USA.

 

[blacksoxing]

Makes me love my phone more and hate apple even harder....

If apple was a kid... He'd get a weggie for days around my way... And wet willies if he tattled!

 

[silverfang77]

Is there no depth to which Apple's greed will not cause it to sink?

Tappin' and talkin' with Tapatalk.

 

[SiGfever]

Do you think the judge is an "Apple Head"?

 

[anthrpicdecadnce]

Thats poopy-pants.

 

[Jeyman]

**** like this is what will make me never buy a apple phone/laptop/anything. This is all going to come back and bite them someday, it is only a matter of time. In the Tech world you can not stand alone.

The day will come where they release iDevice#100 and someone else holds the patent. Blocking the sale to the world and putting them under. You can only make so many foo's without having everyone fight back at some point.

 

[droidbionicmaster]

The ban will be lifted soon. Apple is afraid of android plus with the née Samsung devices coming out the know I phone 5 will be beat out by Samsung.

 

[combat_chuck]

I really wish I could get more details on all of these patent cases, because wasn't Google voice search available before siri? I know voice recognition was available long before either, so I guess it's more technical than that.

The thing that also pissed me off is that 90%+ or people who read idiotically over simplifyed yahoo articles read that story as "apple was the first company to think of voice commands and now everyone is copying them"

 

[Dave12308]

Patent law needs to change, stat. This **** is getting out of hand. There is a certain set of core functionality that one would EXPECT to find in a smartphone these days. Our patent law is not viable for today's high tech world.

The tech world needs to be more like the automotive world. There's a reasonable expectation that a car will have 4 wheels, some type of frame, a body, an engine, a transmission, etc. And they all share a common "user interface" - steering wheel, pedals, shifter. I don't see Chevy suing Ford because they both make a car with a steering wheel, gas pedal, and front mounted engine.

EDIT: I also do not see how any of these things Apple claim are causing them "irreperable damage" is actually damaging at all. The only thing hurting Apple is the amount of time it is taking them to get a "modern" smartphone into the marketplace. For one thing, anyone who wishes to use 4G is essentially forced away from Apple, since none of their current phones are 4G capable. And the 3.5" screen is basically low-end phone material, nowadays. You can pack as many pixels into it as you want to, the fact of the matter is that it is still too dang small. Apple seems to be less into innovation these days, and more into suing everyone they possibly can. I swear, at this rate they are soon going to be suing everyone who says anything negative about them *LOL*

EDIT 2: Maybe people should sue Apple for the iOS 5.1 update changing the 3G indicator to 4G when connected to the HSPA+ network. Unlike LTE, HSPA+ is not a true 4G network and should never be represented as one.

 

[metalspring]

What??? No more galaxy nexus in us??? I think this might really get Google to blast apple once and for all...they aren't going to stand for having their flagship phone banned from the us...its just plain stupid
All because of simple voice search which really is nothing like siri. now the nexus 7 with Google now voice search I can see being a little more of a case since its more similar but not the standard ICS voice search

 

[combat_chuck]

I wish I were a lawyer so I could figure this out. I tried searching for info on the patents and came up with this article that goes into more detail on them: http://www.fosspatents.com/2012/02/apple-requests-us-preliminary.html

One of the things it mentions is that the patent involving siri could be a big problem for Google since Google's main deal is the search engine. THAT DOESNT MAKE ANY FREAKING SENSE!!! GOOGLE HAS HAD THEIR SEARCH ENGINE AROUND FOREVER!!! SIRI JUST CAME OUT!

 

[revelated]

The one good thing about this:

If the ban stays, I'll be able to make a KILLING selling my Nexus on Craigslist. Even if I charge $500 for it, because eBay is going to be a LOT higher. Right now the Nexus' sole purpose in my world is as a gaming machine since the screen is superior, but since I've already played all of the good games, it's getting less and less used.

 

[acousticshade]

I think we need to ramp up ground support for boycotting Apple products. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, post on Facebook, etc. I'm gonna go look up some boycott sites. I'm sure there are probably several.