Seems like it's gonna take Apple and Samsung a couple more months for the U.S. International Trade Commission to decide whether iPhone and iPad sales should be banned due to patent violations. And nobody really knows when exactly – it is not the first time for ITC to delay its ruling since stating that it would revisit the case “in its entirety” last November. Following the claim raised by Samsung in June 2011, in September of last year, Judge James Gildea of the ITC had ruled that Apple did not violate any of the four Samsung patents that were in question. However, since the ruling was preliminary, the ITC's full six-member commission still had to render its decision, which was supposed to occur Tuesday, according to a CNET article.
Skepticism as been suggested by many "tech-insiders". One suggests that it is likely for ITC to be in favor of Samsung because it is otherwise unlikely for the U.S. trade agency to defer the process so many times. No one knows if it is true until the investigation is over. However, as one article at Foss Patent has also suggested, a full review is more of an opportunity for Samsung to achieve a better outcome than the four infringement findings of the original initial determination.
The patents involved include transmission technology, phone numbers detection from an email or Web page and finally, a technology that moves the document display page with the user's finger.
While a lot of people complain about the time taken for the ITC to process prelim rulings / final full reviews, it is really only reasonable for them to take so long. Firstly, the decision to be made is big. They have the authority to ban imports of patent-infringing products into the U.S., which is one of biggest markets in the world where companies generate most revenues. In addition, a more detailed technical justification for the ruling must be provided by administrative law judges compared to a jury. Its final determination also undergoes a presidential review. If ITC is asked to present their reviews in a more timely manner, it is only likely that the decisions made will be less reasonable and detailed.
Apple has been facing a lot of patent infringement lawsuits relative to the iPhone and iPad. There stock has been dropping because of these lawsuits. I wonder how Apple will sustain growth while facing all of these lawsuits.
ReplyDeleteI think Apple's stock decline is probably partially due to patent ligitation. But it's probably more moved by an unsustainability in consumption among other things.
DeleteIt'll be interesting to watch how the transmission issue is worked out since that has future ramifications.