Samsung trumps Apple in Japan patent fight

TOKYO (Yonhap News) ― A Japanese court said Tuesday that Apple Inc.’s patent infringement claim against Samsung Electronics Co. is invalid, giving the upper hand to the South Korean tech giant in a series of legal battles over patents, a Japanese news agency reported.

Upholding a lower court’s verdict, the Intellectual Property High Court ruled that Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone maker, did not infringe upon Apple’s technology on transferring media content from computers to smartphones and tablets, according to Kyodo News Service.

The patent is one of two intellectual properties the iPhone maker addressed in its August 2011 claim against Samsung.

In 2011, the iPhone maker argued that Samsung’s Galaxy S and Galaxy S2 smartphones and its Galaxy Tab tablet infringed upon its synchronization technology.

Also, Apple argued in the 2011 claim that Samsung infringed on its so-called “bounce-back” technology.

Last week, a Tokyo court ruled in favor of Apple saying that Samsung infringed on Apple’s patent for its bounce-back feature that notifies users they have scrolled to the end of an electronic document by displaying white space. When the finger is removed from the screen the image bounces back into view.

Seoul court ruled last year that Samsung violated Apple’s bounce-back feature, and banned the sales of products using the technology.

Samsung has already replaced it with a new technology in most of its newer devices.

Meanwhile, the U.S. International Trade Commission said early this month that Apple has infringed on some of Samsung’s patents in making smartphones and tablet computers, and issued an order prohibiting the California-based company from importing wireless communication devices, portable music and data-processing devices as well as tablet computers.

The U.S. ruling is part of continuing developments in the patent war between the world’s two biggest smartphone giants, which have been fighting to protect their stakes in the lucrative smartphone sector.

In March, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh scaled back a previous penalty order worth $1.05 billion, stating Samsung pay Apple $598.9 million, roughly $450 million less than the initial decision, citing calculation errors in the jury decision.