Court to Apple: Sorry, No Ban on Samsung Gadgets

A victory for Samsung in its long-running feud with Apple: A judge has refused to ban 26 of the South Korean firm's smartphones, as Apple wanted. A jury this summer found that Samsung had knowingly infringed on Apple's patents, but that's not sufficient grounds for a ban, Judge Lucy Koh says. Instead, Apple would have to prove "irreparable harm" by demonstrating that customers were choosing specific Samsung devices over the Cupertino company's own, Forbes reports.

Koh also noted that just "a small fraction" of Apple's features suffered infringement, and "it does not follow that entire products must be forever banned from the market," Reuters reports. Apple is likely to appeal the move, Forbes notes. In better news for the US firm, Koh nixed Samsung's call for a new trial over jury bias—leaving the $1.05 billion ruling in place, Mashable notes. Meanwhile, Samsung is ditching its bids for injunctions against Apple in Europe, where the European Commission in January planned an antitrust probe over Samsung patents. "We strongly believe it is better when companies compete fairly in the marketplace, rather than in court," the company said in a statement to the Verge. (More Samsung stories.)