According to FOSS Patents, Administrative Law Judge James E. Gildea has issued a preliminary ruling regarding Samsung’s ITC complaint against Apple. Judge Gildea reportedly stated that none of the four patents in question had been infringed upon by Apple, and that these patents were not applicable as “no domestic industry exists” for them.
Here are the US patents in question: #7,706,348, #7,486,644, #6,771,980 and #7,450,114.
For now, this means that Samsung is quite far away from achieving an import ban on any of Apple’s products. The Judge’s decision, however, is not final, and will need to be reviewed by the ITC Commission. Expect an answer within the next four months.
Conversely, following Apple’s successful $1b suit against Samsung, an injunction hearing is set for December 6, which will decide which (if any) Samsung devices are banned in the US.
Today’s news follows yesterday’s preliminary ban of some Motorola tablets and phones in Germany, thanks to a ruling by the regional court of Munich, which found a number of devices directly in violation of Apple’s rubber-band scrollback patent.
Featured image: Clyde Robinson
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