Techies Could Expect iPhone 6 Sale in Japan as Apple Wins Court Case in Tokyo vs Samsung
Apple's rumoured iPhone 6 will probably be available to Japanese techies as the Tokyo District Court did not ban the sale of iPhones and iPads and other Apple devices in Japan.
The Tokyo District Court on Thursday found that Samsung did not exert effort in negotiating with Apple patent licensing deals. The South Korean tech firm claimed in filing the lawsuit that Apple infringed its rights to one of its 3G technologies.
The court decision is the latest in a series of lawsuits the two tech giants are engaged in as they battle for a larger slice of the smartphone, tablet and laptop markets.
It is the same court that received in September 2011 a lawsuit from Apple against Samsung in a bid to ban the sale of Galaxy S smartphones and Galaxy Tab tablets in Japan. However, Samsung filed a countersuit the following month, seeking the ban on sale of iPhone 4, 4S and iPad 2.
Had the court favoured Samsung, the South Korean tech firm would likely seek the extension of the sales prohibition on newer and upcoming Apple devices such as the iPhone 6 and the iPad Mini 2.
In a statement following the court decision, Samsung said it will review the ruling and take the necessary measures to protect the tech firm's intellectual property rights.
The Tokyo Court decision came just weeks after a Japanese court ruled that Samsung did not infringe Apple's patents when it used a technology that synchronized mobile players with computers.
Meanwhile, a patent blogger, Florian Mueller, claimed that Samsung had hired a retired British judge, identified as Sir Robin Jacob, in a decision made with two other judges, to order Apple to publish a notice in British newspapers and on its Web site that Samsung did not infringe its design rights.
Mr Jacob, who in 2012 was with the Court of Appeal, is the current consultant of a law firm hired by Samsung to handle patent infringement lawsuits in the U.S. filed by another tech firm, Ericsson. He is also a law professor at the University College London.
Samsung stressed that Mr Jacob was hired by the law firm for the U.S. lawsuit filed by Ericsson and was not a legal representative of the South Korean tech firm in the U.K. court case.
In Australia, Samsung questioned before a two-judge panel if computer-to-user interaction could be patented as what Apple did for some hand gestures.