Apple wins significant ITC ruling against Samsung

Apple’s legal team has suffered some major blows over the past few weeks, in their ongoing battle with Samsung. First, they lost an appeal on a UK ruling that will force the company to publicly state that Samsung did not copy the iPad. And just a few days ago, the USPTO invalidated one of Apple’s more significant patents.

But things may be looking up for the Cupertino litigators. According to a new report, an ITC (International Trade Commission) judge has just ruled in Apple’s favor in a complaint case against Samsung, a ruling that could see some of its devices blocked from entering US…

Bloomberg has the scoop:

“Samsung violated four of Apple’s patents, including one for the design of the iPhone and one for touch-screen technology co- invented by Steve Jobs, U.S. International Trade Commission Judge Thomas Pender said in a notice posted on the agency’s website.”

The ruling is the result of an ITC complaint Apple filed last year, which was actually a countersuit to a Samsung complaint. And though Judge Pender’s decision holds a significant amount of weight, the case will be reviewed behind the entire commission before any type of final decision in the case is made.

If the Judge’s initial ruling holds true, then the ITC has the power to ban all of Samsung’s infringing products from the US. Like literally stop them at the border and keep them from entering the country. This actually happened to HTC back in May of this year, when its products were held up at US customs.

In August, Apple won a significant lawsuit against Samsung here in the US, with awarded damages equaling more than a billion dollars. This ITC case is of even more importance, as not only could it keep Samsung from selling some of its products in the US, a major market, but it could also affect future trial outcomes.

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.