Published: 9/17/15
Publication: FOSS Patents
At a hearing in March, Apple faced a skeptical court for its fourth or so attempt to obtain a U.S. patent injunction against Samsung. Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a ruling that vacates Judge Koh’s August 2014 denial of an injunction in the second California litigation between Apple and Samsung and remands for further proceedings. However, Chief Judge Sharon Prost strongly disagrees with her two colleagues on the panel, Circuit Judges Moore and (notoriously Apple-admiring and generally patentee-friendly) Reyna, who outvoted her. Last year, I absolutely liked and agreed with Judge Prost’s dissent (on the reasons, not the outcome) in the “Posner” appeal with respect to injunctions over FRAND-pledged standard-essential patents. Today I am once again more convinced by what she writes than by the majority opinion. Last year, her position was favorable to Apple. Today, what she writes supports Judge Koh and, by extension in this particular context, Samsung.