SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
on Thursday lost its bid to ban sales of Apple
Inc's older iPhone and iPad in South Korea, as
a court dismissed a lawsuit claiming the U.S.
firm had infringed three of Samsung's mobile
patents.
The lawsuit was part of the tech giants' global
courtroom battle dating back to 2011, when
Apple first sued Samsung for copying the look
and feel of its iconic iPhone and iPad.
A judge at the Seoul Central District Court said
Apple products such as the iPhone 4S, iPhone
5 and iPad2 did not violate Samsung patents
on short message display methods and
messaging grouping features.
The court ruled against a sale ban on the
products and threw out Samsung's claim for
100 million won ($95,100) in damages.
In a separate ruling in August last year, the
same court ordered Apple to pay Samsung 40
million won in damages for infringing two of
the South Korean firm's wireless technology
patents.
In the same ruling, Samsung was fined 25
million won for violating a patent relating to
the so-called bouncing-back function use
when scrolling electronic documents.
Apple and Samsung have gone to trial twice in
the past two years in a San Jose, California
federal court, where juries have awarded Apple
roughly $930 million in damages.
($1 = 1052.2000 Korean won)
