Apple attempts to ban Samsung products in US overruled

"Multitude" of other features also drive phone sales, says judge

Apple has lost its ongoing legal battle to have Samsung smartphone products outlawed in the US, with the sales ban it fought for not granted yesterday in a San Jose court.

US District Judge Lucy Koh told Apple it had not presented enough evidence to prove that the patents the company alleged Samsung had infringed were sufficient pull for consumer purchase of Samsung devices.

"A multitude of other survey evidence not prepared for the purpose of litigation," wrote Koh in her ruling "indicates that numerous features that were not tested - such as battery life, MP3 player functionality, operating system, text messaging options, GPS, and processor speed - are highly important to consumers."

While Apple has yet declined to comment on the outcome, Samsung released a statement saying it "agreed" with Koh's judgment, saying that "a few software features alone don't drive consumer demand for Samsung products - rather consumers value a multitude of features".

Apple and Samsung have been fighting in court since 2011 about Samsung's right to features such as pinch zoom, and even the size and shape of smartphone screens.

The over $900m in damages Apple eventually managed to pick up wasn't enough for the company, however, and it has since been seeking the sales ban, which has now been kiboshed in San Jose.

Samsung has stopped selling its older phone models that the legal action targeted, such as the Epic 4G and the Indulge, but Samsung is due back in court again beginning later this month in order to discuss patent breaches on newer models.