Apple
and Samsung get South Korea bans
Apple and Samsung have accused each other of copying aspects of
their devices
A South Korean court has ruled that Apple and
Samsung both infringed each other's patents on mobile devices.
The court imposed a limited ban on national
sales of products by both companies covered by the ruling.
It ruled that US-based Apple had infringed two
patents held by Samsung, while the Korean firm had violated one of Apple's
patents.
The decision comes as a jury in California is
deliberating on a patent trial between the two firms in the US.
The sales ban will apply to Apple's iPhone
3GS, iPhone 4 and its tablets the iPad and iPad 2.
Samsung products affected by the ban include
its smartphone models Galaxy SI and SII and its Galaxy Tab and the Galaxy Tab
10.1 tablet PCs.
The court ordered Apple to pay 40m won
($35,000; £22,000) in damages to its South Korean rival, while Samsung was told
to pay Apple 25m won.
The awards are dwarfed by the damages being
sought by Apple in its case in California. It is seeking more than $2.5bn
(£1.6bn) from Samsung, for allegedly violating its patented designs and
features in the iPad and iPhone.
'Differentiated
its products'
A Samsung spokesperson told the BBC that the
court had found the South Korean firm guilty of violating Apple's patent
relating to the "bounce back" function.
The function lets users know that they have
reached the end of a screen that they may be scrolling through on their
devices.
Meanwhile, Apple has been found guilty of
violating patents relating to telecom standards held by Samsung, including
technology that makes the transfer and transmission of data between devices
more efficient.
However, the court ruled against Apple's
claims that Samsung had copied the designs of its products.
"There are lots of external design
similarities between the iPhone and Galaxy S, such as rounded corners and large
screens... but these similarities had been documented in previous
products," a judge at the Seoul Central District Court was quoted as saying
by the Reuters news agency.
"Given that it's very limited to make big
design changes in touchscreen based mobile products in general... and the
defendant [Samsung] differentiated its products with three buttons in the front
and adopted different designs in camera and [on the] side, the two products
have a different look," the judge said.
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