According to a patent ruling which inhibits Apple from importing older versions of the iPhone and iPad, however Apple had asked the ITC to issue a stay.

The ban, declared on June 4, is subject to a customary 60 day review period by the President of the United States.

The patent news has come up as a shock to Apple which is demanding an unusual request from ITC as Apple will suffer a great loss if their demand is not granted. Giving more information on how the company will suffer, the officials said that the ban is set for August 5th and will eventually sweep away an entire segment of Apple’s product offerings and also harm its phone carrier partners.

Rivalry of The Biggies– Apple and Samsung

In the ITC proceedings, Samsung won a surprise victory in June when the agency found that versions of Apple’s iPad and iPhone infringed on one of the South Korean company’s patents relating to encoding technology which resulted in ITC to impose an automatic import ban on the iPhone 4 and iPad 2G and earlier models of those products.

All these actions surely make us think that the impending import ban has resulted of a patent system run amok, and one in which the trade agency has become a place for smartphone competitors to do an end run around the courts in order to harass each other.