US appeals court rejects Samsung request to lift Galaxy Tab ban

A FEDERAL APPEALS COURT has rejected Samsung's request to lift the ban on sales of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the US that was imposed after it lost a patent skirmish with Apple.

Last month Apple won in court against Samsung when District Judge Lucy Koh ruled that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 "slavishly copied" the Apple Ipad, infringing a number of design patents. This ruling saw the tablet removed from shelves in the US, despite Samsung scoring a victory in court here in the UK.

Samsung unsurprisingly appealed the ban, but on Thursday the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected the firm's appeal.

The court order reads, "In deciding whether to grant a stay of injunction pending appeal, this court 'assesses the movant's changes of success on the merits and weight the equities as they affect the parties and the public'".

"To prevail, a movant must establish a strong likelihood of success on the merits, or failing that, must demonstrate that is has a substantial case on the merits and that harm factors militate in its favour," it adds, before denying Samsung's request to lift the injunction.

In a second order, the appeals court rejected Samsung's request to expedite consideration of its appeal.

Following the ruling Apple reissued its previous statement, saying, "It's no coincidence that Samsung's latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging.

"This kind of blatant copying is wrong and, as we've said many times before, we need to protect Apple's intellectual property when companies steal our ideas." µ