Apple and Samsung handed South Korea bans

A Seoul court has handed bickering mobile technology giants Apple and Samsung limited bans in South Korea when it ruled they had infringed each other's patents.
Seoul: Court slaps both Apple and local boys Samsung

California-based Apple was judged to have infringed two Samsung patents, while the South Korean firm was deemed to have violated one Apple patent, the BBC reports.
The limited ban on national sales affects Apple’s iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad and iPad 2, while Samsung will be hit with bans on smartphone models Galaxy SI and SII and its Galaxy Tab and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet PCs.

Closing arguments

The court also ordered Apple to pay won40 million ($35,000) in damages to Samsung, with Samsung paying won25m to Apple. The awards are dwarfed by the damages being sought by Apple in its on-going case in California, where the technology giant is seeking $2.5 billion from Samsung.
Lawyers in the California case have now delivered their closing arguments, reports the Legal Week newspaper. Samsung's lawyer, Charles Verhoeven of Los Angeles law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, told the nine-member jury that Apple is threatening to ruin the culture of the Silicon Valley. He said: ‘Rather than compete in the marketplace, Apple is seeking a competitive edge in the courtroom.’
Apple's lawyer Harold McElhinny, a partner at San Franciso-founded Morrison & Foerster, responded: ‘Samsung was the iPhone's biggest fan… When they couldn't compete with it, they copied it.’

Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]

Top