The preliminary injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus has been suspended for a short term by the U.S. Court of Appeals. The Asian company will thus continue selling its flagship smartphone in the country until the appeals court receives a response from Apple and determines whether the ban should be enforced until the end of the patent violation trial slated for July 26th. The same appeals court has denied Samsung’s previous motion to lift the Galaxy Tab 10.1 import ban.
On July 3rd, Google pulled the Galaxy Nexus from its online store following the injunction granted by Judge Lucy Koh primarily based on Apple’s patented “unified search” solution used in its Siri voice assistant. Although the online search monolith has promised a patch to the Galaxy Nexus to engineer around the asserted patent in the nearest term, it hasn’t been released yet. Google has assured consumers that the smartphone will return to the Google Play Store next week running Android 4.1 Jellybean, which also allegedly eliminates infringing features from the mobile operating system.
Apple got involved in a legal battle against Samsung last year, when it sued the South Korean electronics maker for using several of its patented inventions in its Android products. The list of asserted patents included the “data tapping” patent allowing users to convert URLs and phone numbers within the text into app-specific links and the Siri “unified search” patent which lies at the heart of the current dispute. Samsung responded with countersuits in several countries. At the end of last year, the patent combat between the two tech monoliths numbered 50 suits filed in 10 countries.
