Although Samsung is still in the process of hiding in the shadows of the consumer technology industry in an attempt to lick their wounds that are a result of their rather large defeat against Apple in California, they have managed to present their case in a Japanese court and notch up what can only be classed as an extremely small victory over the Cupertino-based iPhone giants. Although the case is in no way as large as the recent happenings that have been going on in San Jose recently, a victory is still a victory and Samsung will walk away from this one with their heads held a little higher.
The case itself was centered around Patent No. 4,204,977, which refers to an Apple held technology for synchronizing music and video data in devices to servers. In the immediate aftermath of their crushing defeat to Apple last week, a Samsung press release stated that the company wouldn’t rest until their case and points had been heard around the world in the hope that they could draw some attention to what they class as "blatant abuse of patent law".
Although the previous case and this most recent contesting of Apple’s claims are entirely different events, it should give the Korean company some comfort in the fact that a number of their devices have been deemed to not copy some Apple features. The overseeing judge of the trial, Tamotsu Shoji, ruled that the Galaxy Tab amongst other devices were not in breach of the utility patent that basically covers transferring data between two different devices. As part of the outcome, Judge Shoji has ruled that Apple will have to front up and cover the legal feels of the trial, something I’m pretty sure they can cover with a portion of the $1.05 billion they are owed by Samsung.
The origins of this particular case in Japan can be traced back to last year when Apple attempted to claim over 100 million Yuan from Samsung for a number of devices, including the Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Tab. Regardless of this little minor set-back for Apple, the company will still be presenting their legal team at the December 6th meeting in California in an attempt to get a permanent ban on the sale of eight Samsung devices that have been found to infringe on their held patents.
(via Reuters)
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