Samsung, Apple Both Guilty of Patent Infringement, South Korea Court Rules

Surprise split ruling awards damages to both sides and imposes partial sales ban on major smartphone and tablet lines.

Apple (IW 500/9) and Samsung (IW 1000/15) infringed on each other's patents for mobile devices, a Seoul court ruled Friday, awarding damages to both technology giants and imposing a partial ban on product sales in South Korea.

 The ruling is part of a bitter international patents battle between the two rival firms and comes ahead of a high-stakes U.S. jury verdict expected to set the course of their tussle for smartphone and tablet PC supremacy.

 The Seoul Central District Court ruled that Apple breached two of Samsung's technology patents, and ordered it to pay $35,242 in damages.

 It also ordered Samsung to pay 25 million won for violating one of Apple's patents. Each company had sought damages of 100 million won from the other.

 The judges said there was "no possibility" that consumers would confuse Samsung and Apple smartphones -- a key issue in the U.S. trial -- and that Samsung's smartphone icons do not infringe Apple's patents.

 But it said Samsung infringed Apple's patent for bounce-back technology. Apple's signature bounce-back design is the widely copied spring-back behavior that occurs when a user reaches the edge of a document.

 The court banned sales in South Korea of Apple's iPhone 4 and iPad 2, as well as Samsung's Galaxy S, Galaxy SII and Galaxy Nexus smartphones, and the Korean firm's Galaxy Tab and Galaxy 10.1 tablets.

 But the banned products do not include the latest models from either firm such as the iPhone 4S and the Galaxy S3 smartphones.