Everyone knows that Apple basically took Samsung to the cleaners over patent infringement of the iPhone on Apple’s home turf, with the US court awarding a billion bucks in damages, but like I said in our report on the subject, Apple may have won in the US but that doesn’t mean they will win elsewhere in the world, and one such place Apple hasn’t won against Samsung is in Japan.
Over in Japan, Apple and Samsung have been battling it out in court over an Apple patent to do with syncing mobile devices to computers, and according to a report by Reuters, the Tokyo court has ruled that Samsung does not violate Apple’s patent.
Tokyo District Court Judge Tamotsu Shoji said on rejecting Apple’s claim and handing that win to Samsung, that Samsung products do not infringe on Apple’s technology scope, and thus dismissed the lawsuit.
After the verdict, Samsung issued a statement stating that they welcome the court’s decision, a decision that confirms Samsung’s long held position that their products don’t infringe on Apple intellectual property. When asked for a response, a rep for Apple in Japan declined to comment.
Both Japanese carriers NTT DoCoMo and KDDI sell Samsung Galaxy devices in the country, with a spokeswoman KDDI remarking that she didn’t see any major impact from the decision, whilst a spokesman for NTT DoCoMo declined to comment on the matter.
This latest court decision might only be a small win for Samsung in the global patent fight with Apple, but none the less it is a win, although of course Apple can appeal the ruling, and no doubt will do so given time, and no doubt the legal fight between these two mobile giants will continue for some time yet.