SEOUL, KOREA – The US International Trade Commission (ITC) postponed its ruling on a complaint filed by Apple accusing Samsung Electronics of infringing on its patents to August 1.
The ITC’s repeated delays in the final ruling spare Samsung Electronics the risk of having an import and sales ban imposed on its products found to infringe Apple patents. Since the setback allows Samsung Electronics to sell its products until August, the damage Samsung has to sustain will be minimized even if the ITC takes sides with Apple.
In October of last year, ITC Administrative Law Judge Thomas Pender made an initial ruling that some Samsung devices violate four Apple patents, including one iPhone design patent and three software patents such as Apple’s tough screen patent.
Immediately, Samsung appealed against the preliminary ruling and the ICT decided to hold a full review of its initial ruling.
Judge Thomas Pender has to submit a modified judgment by April 1 and the final ruling on the modified judgment will come out on August 1.
Sean Chung (hbpark@etnews.com)
**Article provided by etnews [Korea IT News]
[Reference] : http://english.etnews.com/electronics/2715655_1303.html