A Dutch court ruled on Wednesday that Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones do not infringe on certain Apple multi-touch technology patents.
The ruling on Apple’s multitouch utility patent, first reported by Reuters, is another Dutch loss for the company, and comes months after an appeals court found that Samsung did not infringe on the iPad’s design patents with the Galaxy 10.1.
“With these products Samsung does not infringe the claims that Apple has made,” the court said in its ruling.
The court found that Samsung did not infringe on Apple’s pinch-to-zoom patent, a property that has been asserted numerous times against competing handset makers to little avail. Apple was previously denied an injunction against Samsung’s products based on the patent by the Dutch court back in 2011, as well as unsuccessfully asserting it against HTC in Britain, and in Germany against Samsung and Motorola.
The decision adds to the list of recent legal setbacks for Apple in its ongoing patent battle with Samsung. On Thursday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office tentatively invalidated Apple’s “rubber-banding” patent. That IP was successfully used against Samsung in the Apple vs. Samsung jury trial. Judge Lucky Koh, presiding judge in the Apple vs. Samsung case will be taking the new information under consideration.
Apple does have the chance to appeal the USPTOs decision, or persuade the agency that its invention is indeed new and valid. If the patent is found to be invalid, all claims against Samsung associated with the invention would be nullified.
