Apple May Lose Authority to Block Samsung Tablets

Apple's AAPL legal team had a good summer. They helped the company win a groundbreaking patent trial with Samsung in the United States, which awarded Apple $1 billion in damages. They successfully banned sales of the Galaxy Tab 7.7 in Europe. In America, they convinced U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh to ban the Galaxy Tab 10.1. While there have been signs that Apple's victories may have encouraged some consumers to side with Samsung, other reports suggest the opposite. Still, nothing lasts forever. In the coming weeks, Samsung might be able to start selling the infamous Galaxy Tab 10.1 again. According to Bloomberg, a U.S. appeals court has ruled that Samsung is free to "pursue its efforts to rescind a ban on U.S. sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer." Judge Koh had previously said that she would not act while the ban was on appeal. If granted jurisdiction to lift the ban, however, she said that she would consider allowing Samsung to sell its tablet. Now that Koh has been granted the power to remove the ban, it may only be days before domestic consumers can get their hands on the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Still, that may not help Samsung's bottom line. Over the summer it was revealed that Samsung has only sold a total of 1.4 million tablets in the United States. Apple, on the other hand, has sold 34 million iPads. Worldwide, Apple has sold more than 80 million tablets. Follow me @LouisBedigianBZ