According to
Reuters, a judge on the US International Trade Commission (ITC) has affirmed that Samsung infringed an Apple patent involving “text selection” (copy, cut, paste). The ITC is a “quasi-judicial federal agency” that reviews patent and trade-related disputes.
The decision above is not final and must be reviewed by the full ITC body. Apple originally filed seven infringement complaints against Samsung in 2011.
Last October another individual ITC judge held that Samsung infringed four of the seven Apple patents. The full ITC asked that two of those four claims be re-examined more carefully. The decision released yesterday was the result of that process. The second re-examined claim, involving microphone/accessory detection, was decided in Samsung’s favor.
These two decisions now go to the full commission (again), which must decide whether to uphold them. If so, the ITC can order that Samsung devices in violation (including Galaxy devices) be barred from the US. (Apple’s iPhone is also an import, having been made in China.)
Apple’s various legal victories over Samsung have proven to be of limited value to the company. Indeed, Samsung said it expects Q1 2013 profit of nearly $8 billion driven largely on the sale of Android devices.
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