US District Judge Lucy Koh has denied Apple’s request for a permanent injunction against the sale of some Samsung mobile devices. The proposed retail ban would have covered 26 older generation devices but also held the potential of being extended to encompass newer products.  

The plea was a consequence of an initial jury ruling from earlier this year that some of Samsung’s goods violated Apple-held patents. The Korean firm was then ordered to pay $1.05 billion (£650 million) in damages, a ruling that it has since contested.  Prior to this dismissal, Judge Koh imposed two pretrial bans against specific Samsung devices – the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy Nexus.

After a successful appeal related to the patent ruling specifically dealing with the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Koh removed the sales restriction. This was followed by a federal appeals court reversal on the ban against the Nexus phone.   

"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," wrote Koh in a court order.

"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," she continued.