“Samsung Electronics Co Ltd infringed a key portion of an Apple Inc patent by including a text-selection feature in its smartphones and tablets, an International Trade Commission judge said in a preliminary decision,” Diane Bartz reports for Reuters.
“The full commission must now decide if they will uphold it or overturn the judge’s decision. A final decision is expected in August,” Bartz reports. “If it is upheld, the ITC can order any infringing device to be barred from importation into the United States. Apple has alleged that Samsung’s Galaxy, Transform and Nexus devices, among others, were among those made with the infringing technology.”
Bartz reports, “Google’s Android software, which Apple’s late founder Steve Jobs denounced as a ‘stolen product,’ has become the world’s No. 1 smartphone operating system. Apple’s battle against Google’s Android software has dragged in hardware vendors that use it, including Samsung and HTC.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
U.S. ITC ruling finds Android text selection to infringe two more claims of an Apple patent – April 5, 2013
Our worthless legal system will eventually toss it out.
Sigh 🙁
Either that or take so long to get to the true final state (after many, many reviews and court cases and appeal after appeal after appeal) that the final ruling is useless because by then no one is selling a product with that specific implementation of that feature.
I understand that the U.S. legal system wants to appear to be fair and appear to have listened to all sides of an argument, but with regard to these current, technology patents and such the system moves so slowly that by the time a final decision is made, the outcome is worthless.
There’s less than a 0.00001% chance of a ban happening.
Sign again 🙁
Sign what again???
Give the case to Loopy Lucy. She’ll expedite it forthwith.
Koh-Koh-Kohrean.
Since the wheels of justice turn so slowly, the system needs to be changed such than infringers are not only banned future sales but must compensate the company they infringed upon for past sales of infringing products. Personally, I’d like to see Samsung required to provide free (unlocked, unsubsidized) iPhone 4S to every purchaser of an infringing phone product and an iPad 4 to every purchaser of an infringing tablet product.
If justice takes long enough, a $1.05 billion dollar fine after being whittled down should be enough to buy an iPhone 20.
I was going to say ‘OMG, progress!’ Then I read this:
A final decision is expected in August
AUGUST. Four more months of Samsung reaping rewards from RIPPING OFF APPLE?! The US justice system of the 21st century is worthy of the 19th century. Shameful.
You’d think the judges still rode around jurisdiction circuits on horseback. Antiquated and deadly slow.
If the resulting ban also included DAMAGES caused by WAITING for the decrepit justice system, I might deal with it. But this form of ‘justice’ is CRIMINAL. 😯
If n.korea strike missle to U.S it should land to Koh’s head.