A US judge rejected Apple Inc's latest bid for a permanent injunction against Samsung Electronics in another sign of the diminishing impact of the smartphone patent wars.
Apple won a $120 million jury verdict against Samsung earlier this year over three Apple patents. However, US District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, denied Apple's request to stop Samsung from selling infringing features on its smartphones related to those patents.
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment. In a statement, Samsung said it welcomed the ruling. "We remain committed to providing American consumers with a wide choice of innovative products," Samsung said.
Until this year, the two leaders in mobile technology had been engaged in global patent litigation over Samsung's phones that use Google's Android operating system. However, Apple and Samsung agreed earlier this month to drop all patent lawsuits outside the United States.