HispanicBusiness

Apple has failed in its bid to get Samsung's popular smartphones banned from the US for alleged patent infringement.

Judge Lucy Koh, who is overseeing the patent court battle between the two tech giants, rejected Apple's bid for an injunction on the 26 Samsung products, saying that the patent infringements were only a minor part of the Samsung technology and did not merit a blanket ban, the San Jose Mercury News reported Tuesday.

"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," Koh wrote in her ruling issued late Monday night. "The public interest does not support removing phones from the market when the infringing components constitute such limited parts of complex, multi-featured products."

Koh's ruling follows a jury decision in August which ordered Samsung's to pay 1.05 billion dollars for infringing on Apple's patents.

But she rejected Samsung's call for a new trial based on an alleged juror misconduct request, amid allegations that the jury foreman failed to reveal his previous participation in patent cases.

The ruling is by no means the end of the long-running patent saga which has seen the two companies face off in courts around the world.

Apple and Samsung are both expected to appeal Monday's ruling and have prior motions asking for adjustments to the damages. Apple has also filed a second patent case against Samsung alleging that the company's newer phones also use proprietary Apple technology.