On Friday the ITC filed a redacted version of a remedy suggested by ITC Administrative Law Judge Thomas Pender, in which he recommended a ban be enforced against Samsung products that were found to infringe upon four Apple patents. The judge also recommended that Samsung post a bond for 88 percent of the value of its infringing mobile phones, as well as 32.5 percent of the value of infringing media players, and 37.6 percent of the value of infringing tablets.

Still, in the same ruling, Pender also approved several workarounds suggested by Samsung that might permit the company to continue selling the implicated products (which include the Transform, Acclaim, Indulge and Intercept smartphones, according to Computerworld). These workarounds would sidestep infringing on Apple's four patents—which include one design patent and three technology patents.

However, the judge's initial ruling (and this remedy) must first be approved by a 6 person trade commission panel. Further, the USPTO has been revisiting the validity of Apple's patents. Earlier this month, the Patent and Trademark Office tentatively rejected a claim made by Apple for a touchscreen patent which factored into this very ITC ruling.

As Ars reported in October when Judge Pender made his preliminary ruling, this ITC trial is separate from the federal court trial Apple won in August with a $1.05 billion dollar verdict (which Samsung is in the process of appealing.) Apple is also asking for a ban on Samsung products in federal court, so if the trade commission panel rules against Judge Pender's recommendations, Apple may still have an avenue open to eliminating Samsung from selling a handful of its products in the US.

The patents upon which Judge Pender reportedly used a “Cheech and Chong” test to rule include: patent D618,678, a design patent with a diagram of the exterior of an iPhone; patent 7,479,949 for multi-touch screen navigation; patent RE41,922 describing how images are blended when more than one application runs at once; and patent 7,912,501 which claims an audio plug that can tell if a microphone or non-microphone related device has been plugged in. Two other patents that were brought forth in this case were not found to be violated by Samsung.