Apple's big enemy in smartphone wars: delay

Apple has spent nearly three years fighting its rivals in a global smartphone patent war. Now, setbacks in two key US court cases are laying bare why a drawn-out battle could be bad news for the iPhone maker. Then in an order late on June 11, US District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, effectively dashed Apple's hopes of stopping the launch of Samsung's new Galaxy S III smartphone, which also runs on Android. Judge Koh had said Apple's push to get a court order blocking the June 21 launch would overload her calendar, given Apple's high-stakes trial over other Samsung devices set for July that she is overseeing. The latest decisions don't doom Apple's courtroom efforts - the company can appeal Posner's ruling, while Koh's directive had nothing to do with the merits of the Samsung case about to go to trial, or the legal arguments for an injunction on the new Samsung smartphone. But delays in moving its cases through the courts is a blow to Apple's efforts to get quick and favorable rulings that it hopes would give it an edge in the marketplace for mobile devices.