A US judge has ruled that Samsung phones can remain on sale in the country, following Apple’s bid to get a number of smartphones banned after a copyright case in August.
Apple applied for the ban after a jury found in its favour in August, saying the South Korean firm had illegally used Apple technology.
District Judge Lucy Koh’s decision is part of a series of rulings that she is releasing over several weeks to address the many legal issues that were raised in the case.
Apple was awarded $1.05bn (£648m) in damages after jurors found Samsung had copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad.
It had urged the judge to permanently ban the US sales of eight Samsung smartphone models, while also seeking to add millions more to the award.
“The phones at issue in this case contain a broad range of features, only a small fraction of which are covered by Apple’s patents,” Judge Koh wrote in her ruling.
“Though Apple does have some interest in retaining certain features as exclusive to Apple, it does not follow that entire products must be forever banned from the market because they incorporate, among their myriad features, a few narrow protected functions.”
Samsung was found to have copied features of the iPad and iPhone
Earlier this month, she appeared ready to trim the $1.05bn in damages that had been awarded by the jury, but gave no indication as to by how much.
Adding to the legal tangle, Apple filed a second lawsuit earlier this year, alleging that Samsung’s newer products are unfairly using Apple’s technology.
That trial is scheduled to go ahead in 2014. The two companies are also locked in legal battles in several other countries.
