Apple and Samsung Battling It Out Again, This Time In Appeals Court Over The Galaxy Nexus

Chris Chavez
12 years ago

While last week’s Apple/Samsung patent trial was all about the OG Galaxy S and a huge list of related devices, it seems Samsung and Apple still have some unfinished business to take care of, this time, involving the Galaxy Nexus. You remember a few weeks back when Apple successfully managed to convince the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to ban the Galaxy Nexus because of the universal search function found in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. As we all know, Google quickly patched up the feature in a handful of their devices and the ban was lifted.

Now we have the trial moving onto the US Court of Appeals, where Apple is once again pushing for a pre-trial ban on the Galaxy Nexus before the real patent trial kicks off March 2014. If successful, the Galaxy Nexus could find itself taken off the Google Play Store for the next 1 and half years. Apple’s ~~snake~~ lawyer Mark Perry said in his argument,

“This was the beat-Apple strategy. This was the top of the line, Cadillac phone they trotted out to compete with the iPhone.”

Sounds as if Apple doesn’t take too kindly to competition in the smartphone market. During the hearing, Samsung spilled some official info on exactly how well the Galaxy Nexus has been selling in the US but don’t go expecting Galaxy S3-like sales numbers. Samsung downplayed the Galaxy Nexus’s success saying that, during its first 2 quarters of release, the GNex only manage to rake in about $250 million for Samsung and accounted for only .5% of the smartphone market. A figure Samsung’s lawyer is later quoted as saying was “minuscule.”

Remember, Apple’s key argument is that the Nexus is causing “irreparable harm” as long as the device is being sold in the US due to a loss in market share. You know, because consumers are just clamoring for their chance to get that universal search feature in their hands. No word on when we can expect a ruling from the judges overseeing the case but this just one of more than 30 lawsuits that have been filed between the companies, spanning 4 continents across the globe.

[Bloomberg]