Sprint on Galaxy Nexus Ban: Carriers Suffer Collateral Damage

Samsung has managed to rally another supporter for its motion to stay the Galaxy Nexus ban Apple won against it until a Federal Circuit court resolves the intellectual-property questions at issue in the case.

On July 10, Sprint filed an amicus brief in support of Samsung, adding its voice to that of Google, which has dismissed the alleged infringement at issue in the case as a “trivial patented aspect of a single [smartphone] application.” Sprint’s argument: Injunctions against smartphones are generally a bad idea because they turn carriers into “unwitting victims” of litigation they’re not party to. “[An] immediate preliminary injunction against a device substantially and irreparably harms Sprint by leaving a void in its device portfolio,” the carrier said in its brief opposing the injunction.