X
Tech

Italian court denies Samsung bid to ban iPhone 4S

An Italian court has dashed Samsung's hopes of getting a preliminary injunction issued against the iPhone 4S in Italy in the latest twist of the ongoing patent battles between the two companies.According to ANSA.
Written by Ben Woods, Contributor

An Italian court has dashed Samsung's hopes of getting a preliminary injunction issued against the iPhone 4S in Italy in the latest twist of the ongoing patent battles between the two companies.

According to ANSA.it, an Italian news agency, the decision on Samsung's bid to stop the handset being sold in Italy came to a close on Wednesday.

The result makes Italy the third European country to deny Samsung a preliminary injunction against the iPhone 4S, following similar decisions in France and the Netherlands at the end of 2011.

Apple has also filed requests for preliminary injunctions to be placed on some Samsung products, such as the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy S 4G, which were successful in Australia, Germany and the Netherlands but were denied in the US in December.

"Apple's own requests for preliminary injunctions have been slightly more successful so far, but only slightly so — and Apple may soon owe Samsung significant damages for improperly-granted preliminary injunctions in Germany, Australia and the Netherlands if the courts in those jurisdictions ultimately find that the relevant injunctions shouldn't have been ordered in the first place," Florian Mueller, software patent expert, wrote in a blog post on Thursday.

As both companies have been relatively unsuccessful in getting injunctions granted using the fast-track method, the outcome is now going to need full court proceedings.

"Both Apple and Samsung were trying to rush things in order to score some quick wins of rulings with a profound disruptive impact on each other's business. This didn't work," Mueller added.

Editorial standards