By Kim Yoo-chul
A Japanese district court ruled Friday that Samsung Electronics did not infringe on patents belonging to Apple, sending the dispute between the two technology giants into a new phase.
The ruling came a week after a nine-member U.S jury led by foreman Velvin Hogan ordered Samsung to pay $1.05 billion to Apple for patent infringements.
Tokyo District Judge Tamotsu Shoji ruled Samsung’s Galaxy line of devices including tablets and smartphones “didn’t violate” Apple’s patent related to synchronizing music and video data in devices to servers.
Samsung welcomed the decision. “The ruling in Japan is confirmation that the decision in California doesn’t make any sense. The company will accelerate efforts to provide innovative and qualified products in Japan,” spokesman Lee Seung-joon said.
Apple was seeking $1.27 million in damages from Samsung accusing it of stealing technology used to transfer music and video files.
“Unlike Korea and the United States, Japan rules case-by-case. Six other pending issues are waiting judgments by the court. But we are confident we have proven Apple’s claims are totally groundless,” said an executive.
Before the final verdict, a Japanese court issues its opinion on the infringement claims. “This is meaningful but an important step for Samsung,” the executive said.
Apple spokesman in Korea Steve Park wrote on his twitter account (https://twitter.com/koseck21) that it just responded to Samsung’s claim in Japan and insisted the critical ruling is yet to come.
“In Japan, there are no design-related claims,” Park twitted.
Now a big question is how the ruling will affect legal battles in other nations. The two technology giants are fighting in courts in Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands.
“Samsung needs a victory in Europe as our smartphone market share there has passed over 40 percent, which is far better than the United States,” said another Samsung official.
Apple won in Germany, while Samsung won in the Netherlands last year, however, none of the companies scored a win there this year so far. “Let’s see what happens because the verdict in the United States is more influential than the ruling in Japan,” said the official.
Back in the United States, Apple is seeking to get a permanent ban on eight Samsung models following the verdict. U.S. federal Judge Lucy Koh, who is overseeing the case, has scheduled a December 6 hearing for arguments on the potential ban.
Amid the fierce battles, Google CEO Larry Page and Apple CEO Tim Cook have reportedly had “secret talks” to seek a breakthrough in the ongoing dispute with Google’s top Android supporter Samsung Electronics.
Lois Kim, head of communications at Google Korea, declined to confirm whether the two companies had met for discussions.
After the unfavorable ruling in California for Samsung, Google is looking to distance itself from Samsung Electronics, though Samsung said Google is still its most crucial partner in software.
In the ongoing IFA technology fair, Samsung released a variety of new devices that run on Microsoft’s Windows software, a move seen by analysts as Samsung’s strategy to cut its heavy dependency on Google Android.
Kwon Kang-hyun, a senior executive at Samsung’s media solution center, told the Korean media on the sidelines of the tech fair that the company plans to release new devices that run on Samsung’s own Bada software.
“Samsung won’t drop the Bada software,” Kwon said. Samsung is in talks with Intel to develop Tizen software for use in the tech giant’s new mobile gadgets.
The Bada software, which means “ocean” in Korean, was introduced in December 2009. Bada is the world’s fifth-biggest mobile software ahead of Microsoft’s Windows.