
A Dutch court recently ruled that Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones and tablets do not infringe on Apple’s multitouch technology patent. According to Reuters, the ruling on Apple’s multitouch utility patent is another Dutch loss for the company, and comes after an appeals court found that Samsung didn’t infringe on the iPad’s design patents with the Galaxy 10.1 as well. "With these products Samsung does not infringe the claims that Apple has made," the court said in its ruling.
The Hague ruled that Samsung didn't infringe on Apple’s pinch-to-zoom patent, which is a property asserted multiple times against competing handset makers to little success. The Cupertino California company previously denied an injunction request of Samsung’s products based on the patent by the Dutch court in 2011. The multitouch patent was also asserted unsuccessfully by HTC in Britain, as well as in Germany against Motorola and Samsung.
The decision marks yet another setback for Apple as the company continues to put up a fight in an ongoing patent battle with Samsung. Apple’s “rubber banding” patent, which was successfully asserted against Samsung in the landmark Apple vs. Samsung jury trial, was tentatively invalidated. The suit is still going through post-trial motions and Judge Lucy Koh will be responsible for taking new information into consideration. The Cupertino California company has the chance to appeal the USPTO’s decision or convince the agency that its invention was new and valid. As of right now it isn't exactly clear what decision Judge Koh will arrive at but if the patent is found to be invalid, all claims against Samsung associated with the invention will be nullified.
We’ll have to be patient and wait and see what’s to come.
Source: Reuters
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