Samsung Electronics Co.'s failure to block the US imports of Apple Inc's iPhone 4 and iPad 2 would still benefit the South Korean company. Samsung lost the court case but the verdict could aid the Korean smartphone manufacturer as it defends itself against a US import ban on its very own smartphones in two separate patent lawsuits. The decision resulted to Samsung's loss of more than US$1 billion in market value.
Last August 3, Michael Froman, a US Trade representative, said Apple's product ban was not appropriate since the patent in question was part of the industry's standard. The patent could be licensed at reasonable conditions. Froman's decision was anticipated to influence various pending lawsuits at the US International Trade Commission. Subsequently, PricewaterhouseCoopers said the patent cases field from 2011 to 2012 increased by 30% at 5,189 cases.
"A huge swath of everybody's patent portfolio has just been rendered impotent," Duane Morris' patent lawyer in Washington, Rodney Sweetland, said. Standards patents "are dead on arrival" at the commission right now, Sweetland added.
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