Galaxy Nexus has been taken off Google Play Store in the United States after Apple won a US ban on the latest smartphone. Apple had earlier filed an injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus for patent infringement.

District Judge on the US District Court for Northern District of California, Lucy Koh granted Apple’s petition to ban sales of the latest Galaxy Nexus model in the US. The new smartphone has been co-developed by Google and Samsung and features Android v4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The honorable judge found that the device likely infringes all four patents namely data tapping patent, Siri and unified search, slide to unlock patent and a word completion patent.

Florian Mueller, an award-winning intellectual property activist and patent news blogger, writes in his blog:

But in the United States, injunctive relief is granted only if monetary damages are insufficient to make the right holder whole, and if other requirements are met. Courts apply the four-factor eBay v. MercExchange test. Apple’s motion passed that test with respect to the “Siri patent”, a patent on unified search.

He further writes:

With respect to the other three patents at issue in this context — slide-to-unlock, data tapping and autocorrect –, Judge Koh was not convinced that those features drive consumer demand and that Samsung’s likely infringement causes irreparable harm.

To add to Samsung’s and Google’s woes, Judge Koh has also officially denied Samsung’s request to get the preliminary injunction revoked.

Google is now working on a new software update for Galaxy Nexus.  The phone will be made available next week along with the latest Android OS v4.1 Jelly Bean, which Google says will resolve the patent issue.

Samsung and Apple are scheduled to go on trial on July 30, 2012.

Source: Engadget | Foss Patents | ABC News