Apple Inc.'s request for a permanent ban of specific and older Samsung smartphones in the United States (U.S.) was denied.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh rejected the iPhone company's request from San Jose, Calif. She ruled Apple did not provide enough evidence to claim an injunction of 23 Samsung smartphones.

"To persuade the Court to grant Apple such an extraordinary injunction -- to bar such complex devices for incorporating three touchscreen software features -- Apple bears the burden to prove that these three touchscreen software features drive consumer demand for Samsung's products. Apple has not met this burden," wrote Judge Koh.

Koh had previously rejected the request of a Samsung smartphone sales ban, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ordered her to reassess the ruling.

In regards to the latest rejection, an Apple spokesperson declined to comment while Samsung has yet to issue to a statement.

According to Reuters, Samsung no longer sells the models in question for the injunction.

Judge Koh's ruling comes before the second patent infringement trial between Apple and Samsung scheduled for this month. The March trial involves a different set of Apple patents allegedly used in recent Samsung devices such as the Galaxy S3 smartphone. As the Wall Street Journal noted, since the upcoming trial includes newer products that have sold well in various markets, "industry experts" forecast the possibility of a "larger damages award" for Apple if Samsung is found guilty of infringing the Cupertino-based company's patents.

The first patent infringement trial, also presided by Judge Koh, saw a Samsung guilty of infringing Apple patents, according to a jury. As a result of the trial, Apple was award more than $1 billion dollars in damages in August 2012. The financial damages were later reduced to $929.8 million.

As Latin Post reported, Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Samsung CEO JK Shin for a mediation session with the hope to avoid the March trial. The mediation session, reportedly held in early February, went nowhere.

Apple revealed it has paid its leading outside law firm almost $60 million in wages throughout its patent litigation against Samsung.

According to data from comScore MobiLens and Mobile Metrix, Apple was the top smartphone manufacturer in the U.S. with 41.8 percent of the OEM market share during the three months ending in December 2013. Samsung was double digits behind Apple but placed second with 26.1 percent of the market share. Motorola, LG, and HTC rounded the top five smartphone manufacturers in the U.S. with less than 7 percentage points, respectively.

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