Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that is known all over the globe for its innovative products. Headquartered in Cupertino, California, the company has made some extremely popular products over the years that include its Mac line of computers, its iPod, iPad and most importantly, the iPhone. The company revolutionized the global smartphone market by launching the iPhone in 2007. It is said to be one of the most valuable companies of the world. However, the company’s share in the smartphone market was considerably reduced because of Samsung Electronics blitz of Galaxy line of smartphones that are based on the Android operating system.
These two companies are the two dominant forces in the global smartphone market and are vying for the leading position. Nevertheless, the market is not the only place where they are battling. These two rivals are also embroiled in legal fights in different courts all across the globe. Apple has claimed victory in most of the patent lawsuits between the companies. In the latest news regarding the patent fight of the companies, a judge refused to suspend the case which is related to the search technology part of the Siri voice assistant of Apple Inc.
This decision was made by US District Judge, Lucy Koh in San Jose, California. Different patents are involved in this Siri case of Apple against Samsung Electronics, as opposed to the patents that went to trial in last year’s lawsuit in California. No comment was made by representatives of either of the companies. Last August, in a patent lawsuit, Apple was awarded around $1.05 billion in damages, but this award was reduced by nearly $450 million by Judge Lucy Koh. A new damages trial was ordered by her. Moreover, Apple had requested the judge to put a permanent sales ban on Samsung’s products that were infringing its patents, but that request had also been declined.
An appeal was made by the iPhone manufacturer. However, the hearing is not expected to be held before September of this year at least. Samsung was also accused by Apple Inc. for infringing on a different set of patents in a different lawsuit. This lawsuit is scheduled to have a trial in March of 2014 and includes the search technology used by Apple in its Siri voice assistant. Koh had asked at a hearing last month that a hold should be put on the second lawsuit between the two companies until the first lawsuit was wrapped up by the appeal court.
However, this idea had been immediately rejected by Apple Inc. and favored by Samsung Electronics. Nonetheless, the judge said that the case would continue at its said date. But, at the same time, both the companies were ordered by the judge to streamline their cases and reduce the number of expert witnesses and legal claims as well. The legal fight between these two mobile phone giants has mostly been seen as a proxy war between Google and Apple. This is because Samsung’s products are powered by Google’s Android operating system.
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