It seems that Apple have won yet another significant victory in their ongoing "patent war" against Samsung.
After winning another injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 earlier this week Google's flagship phone has met the same fate. A US Judge has granted another injunction after reviewing the 4 patent infringement claims put forward by Apple. Of these patents one was taken by the Judge as being the most serious cause for concern and the main reason for the injunction to be granted. The patent (US No. 8,086,604) pertains to a search feature which can be used to check multiple sources from a single interface. As this is touted as a major draw of the Android 4.0 software and a core feature of the OS the Judge ruled that there may be irreparable harm caused to Apple through this infringement. The other 3 claims related to the “slide to unlock” feature (a recurring claim by Apple), actionable linking (after reviewing the patent I had very little understanding of this), and finally the touch screen word suggestion interface.
With this ruling as soon as Apple ponies up the money for the bonds to give Samsung monetary compensation should they eventually win the case the sale Nexus devices within the USA will have to be ceased.
Further information can be found in the source below
My opinion:-
These claims seem very broad and vague for patented concepts. Apple basically own using a touchscreen to unlock a device (except maybe a virtual button), the ability to search both locally on a device and on the web, and using a touchscreen to select words. I'm not even kidding. After this I would not be surprised if Google take an offensive and sue Apple based on their own mobile notifications patent which Apple have clearly infringed with the inclusion of the "Notification Centre" in iOS5+. I hope there are no lasting repercussions from this and that Samsung manages to appeal successfully. The loss of the flagship Android phone would certainly send a chill down the spine of any perspective hardware designers looking to make an Android device.
I sort of understood Apple's earlier suits against Samsung. Their devices did look very similar and the drawer of TouchWiz looked very much like the iOS screen before the inclusion of background wallpapers but these are suits against a device which is only similar in the market it is aimed at. Apple seem to be out to destroy the competition by any means necessary.