Smartphone patent wars: Apple gets Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus banned in America

Apple has won another battle in the ongoing smartphone patent wars, with US District Court Judge Lucy Koh ordering an injunction against further US sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus smartphone.

The ruling is a further blow to the Korean electronics giant, coming just days after Judge Koh granted Apple a preliminary injunction against sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.

After the ruling, an Apple spokesperson told the LA Times: “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.”

Apple’s lawsuits against Samsung are part of a series of patent infringement lawsuits between major smartphone and tablet computer manufacturers (including Apple, Samsung, Motorola Mobility, Microsoft, and Nokia) known as the smartphone patent wars.

The lawsuits were filed after District Court mandated patent cross-licensing negotiations between Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Choi Gee-sung collapsed, with neither side willing to compromise on its position.

Apple responded by filing lawsuits that alleged its patents were infringed by Samsung’s devices, and that the continued sale of the devices in the US would cause Apple irreparable harm.

The use of patent infringement lawsuits as a business tactic to block competitor’s products has earned its critics, with US Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner recently dismissing a patent infringement lawsuit between Apple and Motorola Mobility with prejudice, describing the US patent system as being in a “state of chaos”.