Samsung petitions U.S. ITC to block Apple iOS device imports

“Samsung in June accused Apple of infringing five patents to make some iPads, the iPod Touch and iPhones, according to a complaint filed with the International Trade Commission,” Diane Bartz reports for Reuters.

“Samsung asked that Apple’s infringing products be barred from importation into the United States,” Bartz reports. “Samsung makes parts central to Apple’s mobile devices, but Apple in April accused the South Korean company of ‘slavishly’ copying the iPad and iPhone to make its Galaxy devices.”

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“Apple sued Samsung in April in a San Jose, California, federal court, saying the Galaxy lineup infringed on its mobile technology patents. Samsung shot back with claims of its own,” Bartz reports. “Both have asked the ITC to block imports of the other’s devices.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: In related news, Korea-based Cooch Knockoffs, Inc., citing patent infringement, today petitioned the U.S. ITC to block imports of handbags made by Coach, Inc.

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40 Comments

    1. No, but they’re used to being the big fish in their small pond, and now that they’re in a much bigger pond, they think the winning strategy is to pout and hold their breath. Classic case of a protected oligopoly not being able to cut it out in the real world.

  1. That does it. I am returning all the Samsung stuff which I bought from Amazon.com in the last thirty days. Samsung sort of sucked anyway but now I need to make a point, you sell Samsung, you eat Samsung returns.

    The battery life was no where near advertised anyway in real world use over the weekend.

    1. Good, you punish two companies with one there. I know everyone thinks Amazon is great– cause Amazon is great at pretending to be great, but they are a really horrible, evil company run by bastards who are only out to make a buck. They are the opposite of Apple, they don’t give a damn about customers or design, or quality, or doing the right thing. But they provided a competent enough service and a lot of PR and now lots of people “love” them because they think shopping online was invented by them or something.

  2. No details as to which patents Samsung is claiming Apple is infringing, but seems a little odd that Apple is infringing on Samsung patents when Samsung makes several components for iOS devices. I’m preeeetty sure you get a license to use the technology when you buy it from the manufacturer to be included in your devices.

    1. You make a very good point. If the patents were silly or Apple wasn’t infringing on them, then bringing them up would be pointless because they’d just be thrown out. Maybe they are pointless and this is a delaying tactic to give samsung time to see how things play out with HTC?

      If they aren’t’ silly, it is hard to imagine what Apple could be infringing on– since samsung makes major components. Aluminum forming patents? Glass bonding patents for the screen?

      It seems unlikely that Samsung has any software patents.

      1. From one Engineer to another. The concepts of patents is great. The US government use of the concept is pretty stupid. Patents are being allowed for ideas that were already in full use and yet companies are having to pay a patent fee to use hardware that they bought from a company.

        If there is a patent issue, it should be the company making the hardware, not the end user.

        Just a thought

    1. I was most kindly gifted a Samsung DVD player. But that never stopped me for hating the way Samsung made it and the fact that they NEVER respond to customer support inquiries. Death to Samsung. They deserve it. Competitors: Get ready to fill in the gap.

  3. What a load of you know what? Samdung has nothing on Apple. And has a lot of patents to back it up. Keep it up Samdung and you’ll find yourself unable to make any products in the future.

      1. Some folks may miss the Steve Jobs and Miele reference. Those who don’t know, look it up.
        Meanwhile, I’ve lived for a few years in Strasbourg (border town between France and Germany) and had a chance of using Miele there; it really was a pleasure. Hands down, best washer and dryer I’ve ever used. Reliable, solid.

        P.S. boycott Samsung, vote with your wallets.

  4. Samsung’s SHIT has never entered my home. No real reason except there was always something better for comparable money.

    Now, I’ll NEVER buy their stuff simply because of this nonsense. I may not even buy the next iPad if they source the screens from these assholes.

  5. I’ll say it again, if this is the way companies are using their employees time and money, there are still too many people WITH jobs that need to be out of work. The unemployment percentage should be a lot higher if this how things are being run. When is someone going to sue Apple over the sun rising everyday………..I can’t stand this EFFIN GARBAGE news.

  6. Congrats Samsung! Not only you lost a client that paid you billions for manufacturing, but you also lose 160 million potential customers for any of your products because there’s no way in hell Apple users will buy your products after this circus you’ve put on!
    Good move Geniuses!!!
    Oh and BTW, no more Samsung products in this house and you can bet I’ll try to convince all of my friends to never buy your products again and I’ll also try to bury you in every tech forum I’m a member of!

  7. I love my samsung monitors.. I would never stop using a product because of some stupud dispute like this. Don’t you realize that the next iPhone will have Samsung parts? Will you also not buy it because of that?

    1. Companies as large and as international as Apple don’t have the luxury to dump all the components from a particular manufacturer without years of preparation. We consumers, however, don’t have to wait that long to voice our displeasure.

      If and when some of us come across a dishonest organisation like Samsung, we can simply choose to not support their chosen path of blatantly disregarding other companies hard earned IP rights and ripping them off. Large companies can sometimes get away with stretched out legal battles and loopholes; again, we consumers are free to act/react the way we perceive the right way to treat something blatantly evil.

      You may choose to like your monitors over what you consider is a petty dispute and not join the boycott, that’s your prerogative. I for one, think that Samsung is a ripoff con artist that thrives on stealing other people’s innovation (down to packaging, even a value app like iBooks, particular advertisement and so on and on). Matter of fact, so many of us find the ripoff work extremely brazen (as they thought they can get away with it for their vast patent holding and manufacturing contracts). Worst part is, as the old adage goes, mother of the thief has the loudest voice in the village, Samsung is not only remorseless, they are trying to go after the same hand that had fed them. You can choose to categorise/dismiss these behaviours as mutual petty disputes; I don’t. They can have the best monitors or products in the world; I don’t consider my conscience is for sale at any price.

      RIM has suffered, as has Nokia, but they chose to fight with innovation rather than going the way of MS, Google, Samsung, and to some extent HTC and HP’s WebOS. Nokia and HTC have sued Apple, successfully even (if you count S3 now part of HTC’s patent fold), but you don’t see many of us asking to boycott their products. Samsung is wrong. Shameless. I’m voting against them with my wallet.

  8. I think we need to organize a huge boycott of Samsung products. The company is viciously and imperiously doing anything it can–to hell with morality or ethics–to build out its market share around the world, and we, as customers, need to stop it.

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