Samsung Beats Apple In Japanese Patent Lawsuit, And Now Apple Owes Samsung Money



Samsung’s faring a lot better in east Asian courts than it has in the US. A Japanese judge has ruled that the Korean company’s phones and tablets did not violate Apple’s patents, and has ordered Apple to pay all of Samsung’s legal fees.

Like the American trial, the case was about whether Samsung’s smartphones and the Galaxy Tab infringed on Apple’s patents — this time, “synchronising music and video data with servers”. But things actually broke in Samsung’s favour this time. In dismissing the case, Tokyo District Judge Tamotsu Shoji said, “It’s hard to believe the products belong to the range of technologies of the claimant.”

The decision comes less than a week after Apple obliterated Samsung in a US court for $US1.05 billion, and the two came up pretty much even in a Korean court. This decision doesn’t do much to offset the massive loss incurred by the American trial, but Samsung’s got pretty solid grounds for appeal.

So yeah, this isn’t a knockout punch for Samsung or anything, but a win’s a win. [Reuters, Bloomberg via AllThingsD]