Galaxy Nexus: Apple Fails to Get Another Sales Ban On The Samsung Smartphone

Apple had very recently requested the Federal Circuit of Appeals to hear the case on putting back into effect the sales ban that had been imposed on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus. The Federal Circuit of Appeals consists of 9 judges and consideration of a case by this circuit is known as en banc review.

The U.S. Court of appeals had reversed the sales ban imposed on Galaxy Nexus back in October. Judge Lucy Koh had ordered the ban on the Samsung device. The Appeals Court had ruled that such a ban was the abuse of discretion by the judge.

The decision taken by the Appeals court then had significant implications on devices as no ban could be imposed on phones based on patents pertaining to specific features. In spite of the imminent patent war between Apple and Samsung in 2014, Samsung can keep selling its controversial devices as a consequence of this ruling.

The appeal to the Federal Circuit of Appeals by Apple was in a bid to reinstate the sales ban on Galaxy nexus. Needless to say, the result of such a rare review was denial of Apple's request. The patent under controversy is the ‘604 patent, referred to as Siri patent. The patent pertains to universal search feature on smartphone.

In order to get a sales ban, Apple has to have solid proof that the Galaxy nexus phone is in demand due to this feature. This is virtually impossible due to the feature-rich phones available today. There are chances that Apple will appeal to the Supreme Court as well regarding this decision.