Well Apple continues to win against Samsung outside of the US. Surprising right? This time the lawsuit is in the Netherlands, and the court found several Galaxy-branded devices that are running Android 2.2.1 or later to be infringing on a particular Apple patent, EP 2059868, and apparently its upholding the sales ban in the region.
Those wondering what this patent really is, its the “rubber banding” patent. Which describes a way to handle pictures scrolling via a touch interface, giving the device’s interface a “bounce-back” effect. Similar to a rubber band This effect is most notably on iOS devices, but is also found on quite a few Android devices as well. Which is probably why Apple won this case.
Last year, the court in Hague ruled against the South Korean manufacturer in the preliminary hearing about the banning of several devices in that region. This included the Galaxy S, Galaxy S2, and Galaxy Ace. But in the meantime, Samsung has pushed out a software update to work around this problem. Which explains why devices running Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean do not have this problem, and are not being banned for infringing on this particular patent. But older devices that are still stuck on Froyo and Gingerbread still use this bounce-back effect and will most likely remain banned in the Netherlands. Here’s what ComputerWorldwrote regarding this:
During the plea hearing in September, Samsung said that, since the last verdict, it uses its own technology in all its products in the Netherlands. Samsung, however failed to provide the court with evidence of the change, annoying the panel of judges.
“The argument raised by Samsung at the hearing that Samsung Benelux does not sell the infringing products any more, cannot lead to a rejection of the ban,” wrote judge Peter Blok, who presided over the panel of three judges in the verdict. Blok said he would grant the ban because Samsung refused to sign a declaration of abstinence committing to not infringing the patent.
The court has given Samsung 8 weeks to comply, or else they will have to pay Apple around $129,000 per day for every day past the 8 weeks given to them. Also, Samsung has to provide Apple with details of how profitable these Galaxy devices that violate this patent were since June 27,2011. Once that has been taken care of, another court would decide on the amount of damages Samsung will have to pay to Apple.
So basically, the war will never be over between these two manufacturers. But hopefully it’ll quiet down some very soon. I know I’m getting tired of hearing and writing about all this patent stuff. What do you think of this decision? Let us know in the comments. Below we have video of the patents on both iPhone and a Samsung Galaxy device: