ITC to review split ruling in Apple-Samsung patent battle

The International Trade Commission said on Wednesday that the panel will take another look at a split decision made by an ITC judge in Apple's  patent dispute with rival Samsung. Apple alleged that Samsung had infringed on an Apple patent relating to a text-selection feature for smartphones and tablets and Administrative Law Judge Thomas Pender ruled in Apple's favor on that case. The ITC will also look at another decision made by the judge that cleared the Korean based Samsung after Apple accused it of infringing on another patent that is used for technology that detects whether a microphone or another piece of equipment is plugged into the microphone jack of a smartphone or tablet.

A final ruling from the ITC is due August 1st. Apple had originally filed the complaint in the middle of 2011 claiming that the Samsung Transform, Samsung Galaxy S and Samsung GALAXY Nexus models, and others, had infringed on its patents. The ITC has the ability to order a sales ban on products that infringe on other company's patents which makes it a very dangerous situation when you are a defendant in a case up before the panel. There are safeguards in place that make it hard to obtain a sales ban, but just the threat of having an ITC exclusion order placed on your products is enough to make multi-billion dollar companies blink.

source: Reuters