With the ongoing legal battle between Apple and Samsung seemingly at an end, Samsung announced earlier today that it won't be taking its losses lying down, and that, to that end, it will “take all necessary measures” to keep its products available for sale in the United States, despite the request from Apple that eight of Samsung's smartphones be banned from sale on the basis of patent infringement.
Apple filed the ban request in a federal court following its victory over Samsung, asking for bans not only on the Droid Charge, but also on seven models in the Galaxy line. This filing is in addition to a jury award which said that Samsung was to pay out $1.05 billion in damages to Apple, an amount which could be as much as tripled should the case's presiding judge, Lucy Koh, find there was “deliberate infringement” involved.
While Apple specifically targeted eight of Samsung's smartphone models, patent experts were quick to remark that the ban could expand outward to include products like the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note. All Apple would have to do is move to get an “open-ended injunction” that includes any product Apple believes infringed on Apple's patents significantly.
Naturally, Samsung already has plans in the works to appeal the jury decision, which should provide sufficient cover for Samsung to keep its products on shelves for the upcoming holiday shopping season, or at the very least buy Samsung sufficient time to engineer workarounds to the infringed products, as has happened in some other patent cases.
Hopefully, Samsung can make some small alterations and get its product line out from under the impact, because as a general rule, fewer choices in the market doesn't help the consumer much. However, it can be said that dealing a blow to Samsung's comparative dominance in the Android market may be just the helping hand that firms like HTC needed, and it may even provide a bit of a foothold for the Nokia / Windows Phone coalition that was looking for an opportunity to slip into the market itself.
Just what role the Samsung loss will play in the overall market, only time will tell. But it's certain to shake things up, and as is the case with any shakeup, major moves may well be in the offing, and the market may end up unrecognizable from its previous state as a result.
Edited by
Brooke Neuman
