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Samsung gains upper hand in patent violation suit

Posted October. 15, 2011 02:56,   

한국어

Samsung Electronics has gained the upper hand over Apple in a patent infringement suit filed by the American company to prevent Samsung from selling its tablet computers and smartphones in the U.S. market.

A U.S. court said Thursday that Samsung did not violate Apple`s patent rights.

At a hearing in San Jose, California, the same day, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said Samsung apparently did not violate Apple`s patent on "scroll bouncing," or a function that allows a user to flip though pages of a smartphone or tablet PC`s touch screen with a finger and make the last page bounce off.

Apple had claimed in the lawsuit that Samsung copied the function and its three designs.

On the alleged patent violations, Koh demanded that Apple submit additional documents, saying Samsung seems not to have copied Apple products and the validity of the Apple design patents in question is uncertain.

At the hearing, the judge held Samsung`s Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Apple`s iPad in each hand and asked Samsung`s attorney if he could distinguish the Samsung product from Apple`s to show that the two products look similar.

Through this, Koh hinted at the evidence Apple presented not being enough to prove Samsung violated Apple`s design patents though they look similar, according to experts.

A Samsung source said, "It`s become clear that a U.S. court judged Samsung Electronics didn`t violate Apple`s patents," adding, "We will make efforts not to make any problems in selling Samsung products to American consumers."

An industry expert said, "The judge didn`t deliver her ruling but will do so within one or two weeks as she`s asked both parties to submit related documents and has actively conducted court hearings."



jaeyuna@donga.com