Samsung scores victory over Apple in Japan

Tokyo court throws out lawsuit, victory comes days after devastating U.S. ruling against Samsung

After suffering a terrible, and possibly very costly, defeat early last week, Samsung has to be happy to get a win as the week closed. It’s a small win, to be sure, but it will probably take what it can get at this point.

A Japanese court threw out Apple’s copyright infringement claims against Samsung this past Friday.

A Tokyo district court ruled in a preliminary session that Samsung was not guilty of  violating patents on two Samsung smartphones, the Galaxy S and the Galaxy S2, as well as the Galaxy Tab tablet.

The suit was filed by Apple a year ago, in which the company claimed that the devices infringed on its patented technology by synchronising music and video data between devices and servers.

"We welcome the court's decision, which confirmed our long-held position that our products do not infringe Apple's intellectual property," Samsung said in a statement released to the media.

Apple vs Samsung

Apple and Samsung have been locked in a mud-slinging war over patent infringements for months. The two companies have brought more than 50 lawsuits against one another in 10 different countries. 

The Japanese decision comes just days after a U.S. ruled against Samsung in a case against Apple, ordering Samsung to pay $1.05 billion in damages, less than half of the $2.5 billion that Apple was demanding.

Apple had sued Samsung for supposedly having stolen features from the iPhone and iPad to make its products, including Galaxy S, Galaxy S II, and Tab 10.1.

While Samsung had charged in a countersuit that Apple had actually infringed on some of its patents as well, the jury did not find it that way and did not order Apple to pay any damages to Samsung.  Samsung, which had been asking for $422 million in damages, is expected to appeal that decision.

Besides the hefty fine that was imposed upon it, the ruling against Samsung may have a long term detriment for Samsung: the court will hold a hearing on September 20th to determine whether or not Samsung products that violated Apple’s patents will be banned in the United States.

That same day that the U.S. verdict came down, Samsung scored a partial victory when a court in South Korea found that Apple had infringed on Samsung patents.

The court also ruled in the opposite direction as well, saying Samsung had infringed on Apple patents at the same time, leading to bans on products for both companies.

Apple was found guilty of infringing on two of Samsung’s patents and was ordered to pay 20 million won, or about $17,600, while Samsung was found guilty of infringing on one of Apple’s patents and was ordered to pay 25 million won, or $22,000.

Apple is now barred from selling its iPhone 4 or iPad 2 in South Korea, and Samsung can no longer sell 10 of its devices in South Korea, including the Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets.

Neither Apple nor Samsung were available for comment.

(Image source: news.cnet.com)