Japanese court rejects two of Samsung’s patent infringement claims against Apple

“On Saturday, the English edition of Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun revealed rulings by the Tokyo District Court that had already come down on September 14 and October 11,” Florian Mueller reports for FOSS Patents.

“About a year ago, Samsung had brought three claims against the iPhone 4S. The September 14, 2012 ruling reportedly held Apple not to infringe a Samsung patent related to app downloads, and the October 11, 2012 ruling was apparently based on doubts about the validity of a patent relating to the in-flight (airplane) mode,” Mueller reports. “I interpret the report by Asahi Shimbun staff writer Ryo Takano to the effect that the patent wasn’t considered a non-obvious innovation over the prior art.”

Mueller writes, “The total worldwide score clearly shows that Apple is on the winning track. Outside of Korea, all that Samsung has won offensively is a case in the Netherlands where it didn’t prevail on by far and away the most important question — injunctive relief — but will have to content itself with a small amount of damages and future royalties. Samsung’s problem is not that there were two non-wins in Japan. Samsung’s problem is that Apple has won a variety of rulings (even if none of them had or has the potential to force Samsung out of a major market) while Samsung hasn’t won anything meaningful outside of Korea, and nothing anywhere in the world over a non-standard-essential patent. In its desperation it’s even suing Apple over a smiley input patent in Germany, a lawsuit that won’t have any impact on Apple’s business even if Samsung wins, which is doubtful. Samsung can afford many non-wins, but if pretty much all of its assertions outside of Korea are non-wins, it’s going to lose the war, even if it may take Apple more time to have serious leverage.”

Much more in the full article here.