Samsung Electronics Co Ltd lost a lawsuit it filed against Apple Inc, of which the former asked the court to ban the sales of Apple's older iPhone and iPad models in South Korea, Reuters reported. Samsung claimed that Apple infringed three of its mobile patents. The legal battle between the two tech giants began two years ago when Apple sued Samsung for allegedly imitating the look and feel of the iPhone and iPad.
A Seoul Central District Court judge said the products of the US firm, which include the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5 and iPad 2 were not in violation of the patents of Samsung on short message display methods and messaging grouping features. The decision would not ban the sale Apple's products and denied the claim of Samsung for KRW 100 million or $95,100 in damages.
Steve Park, the spokesman for Apple Korea, said about the decision, "We are glad the Korean court joined others around the world in standing up for real innovation and rejecting Samsung's ridiculous claims."
Samsung said it would conduct a thorough review of the decision before determining if it will file an appeal. In a statement, Samsung said, "As Apple has continued to infringe our patented mobile technologies, we will continue to take the measures necessary to protect our intellectual property rights."
Last year, a separate ruling given by the same court ordered Apple to pay damages amounting to KRW 40 million to Samsung for infringing on two of its patents in wireless technology. Samsung was also ordered to pay a fine of KRW 25 million for violating a patent about Apple's bouncing-back function used to scroll electronics documents, the report said.
In the US, Apple and Samsung have faced each other two times in a federal court in San Jose, California in the past two years where juries awarded damages amounting to $930 million to Apple.
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