Just last week, Apple secured a court order which halted sales of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in the US ahead of a patent infringement trial. The injunction has now been lifted, but Apple may still manage to have it reinstated.
Preliminary injunctions are rare, but Apple had succeeded in stopping sales of both the Galaxy Nexus smartphone and the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Though Samsung has been unsuccessful in appealing the ban on its tablet computer, the injunction against the Galaxy Nexus has been overturned by the appeals court.
The reasons behind this decision have not been revealed, though Google and Samsung were reportedly working on a patch that would work around the infringement claim and allow for sales of the smartphone to continue.
Apple has until Thursday, 12 June, to respond to the latest decision and there is a chance the ban could be reinstated.
The full trial is not expected to begin until March 2014 and involves a patent infringement claim by Apple against Samsung for the inclusion of voice-activated search on the Galaxy Nexus that gathers information from a number of sources.
