Apple Employs New Strategy In Latest Attempt To Ban Some Of Samsung's Smartphones

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:APPL) and Samsung Electronics Co. (KRX: 005930) met in court once again on Thursday, this time with Apple using a new strategy to get various Samsung devices banned from the market.

In its latest copyright infringement case, overseen by U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh in San Jose, California, Apple asked for a “narrowly tailored” ban on nine older Samsung smartphone models, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

Koh has already rejected two of Apple’s previous sales ban requests in 2012 and most recently in May 2014. This time, instead of asking for an outright ban on the smartphones, the Cupertino, California-based electronics giant is offering its South Korean rival time to to change the design of the allegedly copied features before a ban is enforced. The devices include the Samsung Admire, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S2, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, Galaxy S3 and Stratosphere.

Apple and Samsung have been locked in litigation over copyright infringement claims ever since Apple first sued Samsung in 2011. Judge Koh, determined in May that both companies were guilty of copyright infringement and ordered Samsung to pay Apple $120 million of its $2.2 billion claim, while Samsung was awarded $158,000 in damages from Apple.

Some of the patents Samsung was found to have infringed upon include Apple’s "slide to unlock function," a function, which allows users to open a phone application to make a call by clicking a phone number within a Web page and another function that automatically corrects spelling errors.

Apple argues in its recent filing that Samsung would easily be able to alter their devices so that they no longer infringe on its patents, While Samsung counters that Apple has not experienced “irreparable harm.”

Judge Koh has not yet made a ruling in the case.

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