Samsung Wins Patent Lawsuit Battle vs. Apple in Tokyo Court; Analysts Say Win Will ‘Turn the Tide in Favor of Samsung’

After losing two patent-infringement lawsuits in a row over the past two weeks, Samsung finally came out victorious with a verdict from a Tokyo court on Friday ruling that the company was not guilty of infringing on patented Apple technologies.

Tokyo District Court Judge Tamotsu Shoji ruled that Samsung had not, in this case, infringed on Apple smartphone patents related to synching mobile devices with computers. After announcing his verdict, he ordered Apple to pay costs for its lawsuit against Samsung.

"We welcome the Court's decision, which confirmed our long-held position that our products do not infringe Apple's intellectual property," Samsung said in a statement responding to its courtroom win today.

Apple representatives refused to comment on this most recent verdict.

"This will likely turn the tide in favor of Samsung," Kim Hyung Sik, a Seoul-based analyst at Taurus Investment Securities Company told Businessweek in an interview. "Samsung had this win in a country that's strong at intellectual property. The mood is turning positive for Samsung."

Prior to the legal squabble in Japan, Samsung suffered heavy losses in the United States last week when a jury found the company guilty of patent infringement. As a result, Samsung was ordered to pay Apple $1.05 billion in damages and had eight of its products banned from the U.S. marketplace, most of which belonged to its line of Galaxy smartphones. Additionally, the company's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet was banned in June under the order of U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh.

Samsung has requested that the tablet ban be lifted immediately, as a jury eventually found that it did not infringe on any patents. The company has also requested that the jury verdict from last week be tossed out entirely and said that if this request was denied, Samsung would appeal up to the level of the Supreme Court if necessary.

Judge Koh has set a hearing date for September 20^th to consider lifting the tablet ban and another hearing date for December 6^th to consider Apple's request to ban the eight alleged infringing devices.