Judge rejects motion to ban Samsung phones

U.S. Judge Lucy Koh has rejected motions filed in a patent dispute from U.S. technology giant Apple Corp. and from South Korean rival Samsung Electronics. The case was already adjudicated last summer with a jury awarding Apple $1 billion to compensate the firm for patent violations involving 26 Samsung Electronics Co. smartphones, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday. In the latest two rulings, U.S. District Judge Koh rejected a request from Apple to have the 26 phones banned for sale in the United States, claiming the patent violations only involved a small portion of the technology that went into the devices. In the other ruling, Koh rejected a motion from Samsung to have the verdict in the case dismissed due to a complaint that the jury foreman had already been involved in a patent dispute case. The legal wrangling is not over. Apple has filed a second patent violation case against the South Korean company, this one based on Samsung's latest smartphone line up. An Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet declined to comment on this week's ruling and Samsung did not respond to a request for a comment, the Times said.