Back in 2011, the legal spat between Apple and its frenemy and key supplier Samsung started to really escalate as the parties began filing a bunch of lawsuits around the world against each other. The Galaxy maker was hoping to gain the upper hand by filing a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in its home turf over claimed short message display methods and messaging grouping features.
However, a Korean judge has now tossed Samsung’s claim out of the window, with the Seoul Central District Court ruling that Apple’s iPhone 4s and iPad 2 do not infringe on Samsung Electronics’ commercial patents…
Reuters has the story:
The court ruled against a sale ban on the products and threw out Samsung’s claim for 100 million won ($95,100) in damages.
The news was corroborated by Newsis, a news agency based in Seoul that covers local and international developments.
Needless to say, Apple was happy with the outcome and supported the Korean court “rejecting Samsung’s ridiculous claims” and was glad that the court “joined others around the world in standing up for real innovation”.
Samsung is reviewing the ruling before deciding whether to appeal.
“As Apple has continued to infringe our patented mobile technologies, we will continue to take the measures necessary to protect our intellectual property rights,” the Galaxy maker said in a statement.
The same court in August ordered Apple to pay Samsung 40 million won (or about $38,000) in damages for infringing two of Samsung’s wireless technology patents while fining Samsung 25 million won (about $23,780) for violating Apple’s rubber-banding patent.