ITC Sides With Apple, Some Samsung Devices Could Receive US Import Ban
by Joe White
August 10, 2013
It's good news for Cupertino as the International Trade Commission (ITC) recently sided with Apple in a patent dispute, and has ruled in favour of the company's attempt to secure a U.S. import ban on certain Samsung devices said to infringe Apple-owned patents.
Fosspatents reports:
Today the United States International Trade Commission (USITC, or just ITC) handed down its final ruling on Apple’s July 2011 complaint against Samsung. An import ban has been ordered and will take effect at the end of the 60-day Presidential review period.Patents infringed include the so-called "Steve Jobs" patent, which refers to touch screen functionality, along with another patent that allows a product to detect when earphones, headphones, or a headset is connected. The ITC's ruling doesn't mean we'll see an instant ban on the offending Samsung devices, however. Instead, a 60-day "Presidential review" will take place, during which time the South Korean company will have the chance of implementing a series of workarounds. Fosspatents continues to explain that a presidential veto, such as the kind of intervention recently secured by Apple, isn't necessarily likely:
Even though there may be expectations in South Korea that Samsung should benefit from a Presidential veto only because Apple just won one last Saturday, “me too” doesn’t make sense here because standard-essential patents (SEPs) like the one over which the ITC wanted to grant Samsung an exclusion order come with FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) licensing obligations and can’t be worked around without prohibitive switching costs, while non-SEPs are traditional exclusionary rights and, most importantly, can be worked around. In fact, Samsung presented to the ITC products that it said (and Judge Pender agreed) don’t infringe. If legality is so readily available, a veto isn’t warranted.We'll keep you updated with further information as we receive it. See also: All Of Apple's Developer Services Are Back Online: Free Extension Offered, Today's Best Apps: Trial By Survival And Abyss Attack, and Put Your Reflexes To The Test With The Deceptively Simple Gleamer.
