Here we go again. More Patents. More Infringing. More Apple vs. Samsung. This time the US Trade Judge is saying that Samsung did infringe on four of Apple’s patents. These include one for the design of the iPhone, and another for the touch-screen technology co-invented by former Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Two of the other patents were not infringed, which includes on for the exterior design of the iPhone. U.S. International Trade Commission Judge Thomas Pender stated on a notice on the ITC’s site.
This is just one of over 30 patent cases from these two smartphone makers which make about half of the world’s smartphones. Back in August, Samsung lost the huge Apple vs. Samsung trial in California and it cost them $1.05 Billion to Apple. That wasn’t the only Samsung and Apple case we’ve seen. That was just one of the biggest and longest ones in recent technology history.
But it seems weird that Apple is mostly only racking up the victories in US courts. Outside the US, Samsung seems to be picking up victories. A program manager at IDC, Will Stofega said the following:
“People see what’s happening in the other countries, but here in the U.S., every time they go up against Apple, they lose,”
“Samsung will continue to fight. In the long run, this cult of Apple may not be a good thing to have.”
It’s not quite over yet, as the Judge’s findings are still subject to review by the entire commission which has the power to stop the goods that violate the US patents. We saw this earlier this year with the HTC EVO 4G LTE (Sprint) and the HTC One X (AT&T), where Apple got a temporary ban on those two devices for HTC infringing on one or more of their patents. The ban was finally lifted when HTC pushed out a minor OTA that fixed the infringement.
Between these two manufacturers, Apple at 34% and Samsung at 18%, they account for over 52% of the smartphones being used in the US. On a global scale Samsung has over 25% and Apple at 17% of the smartphone sales.
Source:Bloomberg