Winning a minor victory in its patent battle with Apple, Samsung entered the weekend with its Galaxy Nexus cleared for sale -- at least temporarily.
Last week, a U.S. federal court handed down a preliminary sales ban on Samsung's flagship Android phone. In a San Jose court, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh granted Apple the preliminary injunction after deciding that the Nexus smartphone may violate a patent Apple owns regarding "unified search," a feature in which Apple's Siri voice assistant searches both the web and the contents of a mobile device.
On Friday, however, a U.S. appeals court overturned Koh's ruling, which would have barred the Galaxy Nexus from being sold until July 30, the date on which a patent trial concerning the dispute is set to begin.
The Galaxy Nexus is now back on sale in the Google Play storefront, but the reinstatement remains tenuous. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said in a document that it is lifting the sales ban, but could decide to put it back in place after hearing arguments from Apple. The appeals court gave Apple until July 12 to respond, according to a report from Foss Patents.
Officials at Samsung were unavailable for comment by press time on Saturday. While not named in the patent suit, Google has said it is readying an imminent software update for Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) that will allow Samsung to sell the Galaxy Nexus without facing any patent conflicts. On Saturday, the Nexus' listing in the Google Play store was updated, stating that the phone "ships soon" and when it does, will be running the latest version of Android, 4.1 Jelly Bean, which also includes the software changes.
In the same patent fight, Apple has also won a temporary sales injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet, which Apple argues looks and feels illegally close to the iPad. The appeals court has not overturned that sales ban.
Via The Verge.
