Apple scored a noteworthy courtroom victory over Samsung on Friday in the epic battle over patent infringement that the two companies have recently been engaged in.
A judge in the International Trade Commission (ITC) said at a preliminary hearing this week that Apple was not guilty of infringing on four patents belonging to Samsung. Last year Samsung filed a complaint with the ITC that Apple had violated patented technology when the company built its iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad devices. Samsung requested that as a result a U.S. sales ban should be instated on all of the allegedly infringing Apple products.
Judge James Gilda is the man responsible for ruling in Apple's favor for this case. However, the ITC will likely be reviewing Gilda's decision in January and the Commission as a whole reserves the right to overturn it if necessary. The Commission also has the power to block imports of infringing products, should it overturn Apple's victory today and decide instead in favor of Samsung.
"We remain confident that the full Commission will ultimately reach a final determination that affirms our position that Apple must be held accountable for free-riding on our technological innovations," Samsung said in a statement.
The Apple-Samsung feud over patent infringement has made headlines recently with landmark rulings have been delivered in California, South Korea and Japan in the past month and a half.
In California Apple garnered a victory after a high-publicity trial that ended with a jury ordering Samsung to pay Apple over $1 billion in damages and banning eight Samsung devices from the U.S. market. In Japan a court found Samsung not guilty of infringing on Apple smartphone patents and Apple was ordered to pay court costs. In South Korea the outcome was bad for both companies as a judge decided that Apple and Samsung had each infringed on the other's patents and ordered sales bans on four Apple products and twelve Samsung products.