French court rules out iPhone 4S ban

While Samsung picked up a decisive victory over at Australia’s High Court today, it suffers a reversal in France, as the first-instance court for all French patent litigation threw out Samsung’s attempt to ban Apple’s iPhone 4S, touting that Samsung’s use of 3G-essential patents against Apple will not be able to achieve a successful result in other courts worldwide as well. Florian Mueller of FOSS patents reports, “The court furthermore held that Samsung’s request for an injunction was “disproportionate” and stated that this fact was apparent, without citing particular reasons for this finding. Some of what the French ruling says indicates that Samsung’s use of 3G-essential patents is going to fail everywhere at least as far as the iPhone 4S is concerned.”

To date, Apple and Samsung’s global tussle have seen over 30 filings in at least a dozen courts across 9 countries, affecting four different continents. Such major disputes will normally need to be handled with a sense of urgency, since such cases tend to take up time, and quick rulings might be pretty difficult to come by. Up next, the action will shift to Italy, where the ongoing legal battle is set for a December 16th hearing in Milan.