Edible Apple

At a court hearing yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh said that she wouldn’t be granting an injunction based on one of Apple’s utility patents, despite her contention that Samsung’s products do infringe upon Apple’s lineup of iOS devices.

But not all hope is lost for Apple. There are still 3 other design patents Apple is asserting against Samsung and we’ll hopefully find out soon how Judge Koh sides on that issue. In other words, Samsung escaped an injunction this time around but they’re still on the hot seat.

To that end, Reuters’ Dan Levine tweeted something interesting from the court hearing. Apparently Judge Koh at one point simultaneously held up an iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in each of her hands. She then asked Samsung’s legal counsel to identify which was which. Levine noted that it took Samsung’s legal team “a while to do so.” Indeed, Samsung attorney Kathleen Sullivan, who was standing 10 feet away from the bench, initially said “Not at this distance your honor.”

With Apple having already secured small and significant victories regarding design patents abroad, Koh’s little game of “pick a hand” might be an indication that Apple’s chances for an injunction with respect to its design patents stand a better shot of succeeding.