Apple loses bid to stop Samsung selling mobile devices in America

Apple has lost a bid in the US courts to have several Samsung mobile devices banned from sale.

The US court ruled at a preliminary hearing that Apple could not ask it to ban the sale of Samsung's Galaxy S 4G, Infuse 4G, Droid Charge and Galaxy Tab 10.1 because it had failed to prove its case.

District court judge Lucy Koh said on Friday that: "Apple has failed to establish that it would be irreparably harmed in the absence of a preliminary injunction."

The two technology companies have locked horns in 10 countries so far over claims and counter-claims of design and technology infringements.

The latest attempt by Apple to put in place an injunction is based on four alleged infringements. Judge Koh dismissed three of these, but ruled that the fourth, concerning patent 381 which covers scrolling software, has some merit but not enough to warrant a ban.

"Apple has established that it is likely to succeed in establishing infringements, and it is likely to withstand a challenge to the validity of the 381 patent, and therefore Apple has made a strong showing of likelihood of success on the merits," she said.

"Nonetheless Apple has failed to establish that is it likely to be irreparably harmed in the absence of a preliminary injunction, and that monetary damages would not sufficiently compensate it for the infringement of the 381 patent."

A blog post written by Florian Mueller, a patent analyst, suggests that in the US at least, Apple's strategy may not work.

"It becomes clear design patents are not the answer to Apple's issues with Samsung because their valid scope appears far too narrow to prevent Samsung from selling products with an attractive design that will be similar to Apple's offerings," he said.

This is the second legal victory for Samsung in recent weeks, after it managed to overturn a court injunction in Apple's favour against selling the Galaxy Tab in Australia.

At the end of November, the Australian courts ruled that Apple's evidence didn't show that the Tab infringed on its touchscreen patent. Apple is appealing this ruling as well.

There was a slight reprieve for Apple on Friday as it won an extension that means Samsung cannot yet put its Galaxy Tab on sale in Australia.