Samsung loses another big patent case to Apple, this time at ITC
Samsung can't seem to catch a break. Just last night, it was revealed the company is under investigation by the Department of Justice for its use of standard-setting patents. Today comes much worse news—a serious loss to Apple at the International Trade Commission.
An ITC judge ruled [PDF] four Samsung phones infringed four Apple patents. If the ruling holds up, it means a variety of Samsung products are likely to be banned from the US market. Kicking Samsung products off the market is the type of relief Apple is also seeking from the federal court trial it recently won in San Jose; however, it may or may not get such an order. The judge has yet to rule on those post-trial motions.
The Apple patents deemed infringed include one design patent and three utility patents. The design patent, D618,678, includes a diagram of the exterior of an iPhone, and has Apple higher-ups like Jonathan Ives and Steve Jobs listed as co-inventors. Patent 7,479,949 is related to multi-touch screen navigation, and also has Jobs listed as an inventor. Patent RE41,922 relates to how images are blended when more than one application runs at once; and patent 7,912,501 describes an audio plug that can tell if a microphone or non-microphone related device has been plugged in.
