US court denies Apple's hearing rescheduling request

A U.S. court has turned down Apple Inc.'s request to delay a Sept. 20 hearing in which Samsung is to fight a preliminary injunction blocking U.S. sales of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer, court documents showed Friday.

The U.S. court also rejected the iPhone maker's request to reschedule a Dec. 6 hearing for a permanent ban on U.S. sales of eight Samsung mobile devices, including seven Galaxy models. The two orders were made on Thursday.

Following an Aug. 24 jury verdict that ordered Samsung to pay $1.05 billion in damages, the Silicon Valley firm has sought to permanently ban sales of the eight gadgets, including the Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S2 AT&T and Droid Charge. The move does not include later models such as the Galaxy S3.

Apple has also pushed to align the two hearings, arguing that its request for injunctive relief is "more urgent" than Samsung's request to dissolve the Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales ban.

U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh denied the rescheduling request, adding that "no change in facts or the law has changed the Court's opinion" on Apple's previous request to set the two hearings on the same date.

She also mentioned that Apple has indicated it may expand the scope of its motion for permanent injunction.

"Accordingly, the Court finds good cause for setting different briefing and hearing schedules for the parties' respective injunction-related motions," Koh was quoted as saying in court documents.

Market watchers view the Dec. 6 hearing as likely to minimize the ruling's impact, as it gives Samsung plenty of time to clear stocks of the earlier models.

"For Apple it is extremely important that the ban occurs quickly. Any delay will give Samsung time to clear the old inventory and help stores stock alternative products that are not on the ban list," according to Nigam Arora, a contributing writer at the Forbes.(Yonhap)