Yesterday Judge Koh granted Apple a motion for a permanent injunction against Samsung devices that infringe on three specific Apple patents: 5,946,647 titled "System and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data"; 8,046,721 titled "Unlocking a device by performing gestures on an unlock image"; and 8,074,172 titled "Method, system, and graphical user interface for providing word recommendations."

Although it's a positive ruling for Apple, in the end, the Samsung products that are noted as infringing Apple's patents are now old and irrelevant at this stage of the game. Apple should have been granted a permanent injunction years ago when it would have mattered. Stopping the sales of products such as the Galaxy Note II, for example, is useless if Samsung is now selling the Galaxy Note V. The "irreparable harm" that Apple would suffer as noted in the injunction, has long passed.

Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents who is known to have long supported Samsung in their legal battles against Apple noted that on one hand Apple's win marked "a significant accomplishment for Apple's in-house and outside counsel. They had been fighting for an injunction like this for several years. They had to deal with multiple setbacks. But ultimately they got an injunction (albeit one without business implications) over a set of features allegedly found in highly multifunctional devices." Mueller added that "one could print a poster for lawyers that shows this injunction" and marked "No one is ever beaten unless he gives up the fight."

Mueller further noted that "Anyone considering infringing any of Apple's patents in the future now knows that Apple may obtain an injunction even if the patents cover only limited aspects of small features of highly multi-functional products. Whether the Supreme Court would uphold such a decision is another question, but it's hard to even persuade the Supreme Court to hear a case. So the injunction isn't going to have any direct impact, but at a meta-level it does have some relevance."

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