Tokyo court rejects Apple’s patent plea against Samsung

Technology giant Apple Inc yesterday lost a patent infringement appeal in a Japanese court against Samsung Electronics, its second recent loss against its S Korean rival in the battle for supremacy in the $390-billion global smartphone market.

The Intellectual Property High Court in Tokyo yesterday upheld an earlier ruling in favour of Samsung after Apple had alleged in a lawsuit that Samsung infringed a patent for synchronising music and video data on its Galaxy smartphones and tablets with servers.

Apple had sought $1 million in damages, but the Tokyo District Court ruled in Samsung's favour in August 2012.

The setback for Apple comes just a few weeks after the US International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that several of Apple's older iPhone's and the iPad's infringed on a patent held by Samsung. (See: Samsung gets US ITC to ban Apple's older devices for infringing patent)

But in a separate patent infringement case, the Tokyo District Court last week upheld Apple's claim that Samsung infringed Apple's patent on the way an iPad or iPhone screen seems to bounce when a user scrolls to the end of a file.

Samsung and Apple, the world's biggest and second-biggest smartphone makers respectively, have been fighting patent battles in courts in over four continents in some 10 countries.

In August 2012, Apple scored one of its biggest victories when a jury in a California courtroom voted overwhelmingly in favour of Apple's patent claims against Samsung, awarding the company $1.05 billion in damages.