An International Trade Commission sales ban won by Samsung against some older iPhone and iPad models has been vetoed by the Obama administration.
The Wall Street Journal tells us this is "the first time since 1987" that an administration has vetoed a product ban awarded by the ITC.
Accordingly, sales of iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, 3G iPad and 3G iPad 2 models that were found to infringe on a certain standards-essential (FRAND) patent by the ITC back in June will continue in the region. However, we will mention that some of those products are already discontinued, with only the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 still being sold by various retailers and carriers.
The ban was supposed to be enforced starting with August 5.
The Obama administration explained the veto vote saying that it had concerns about patent holders gaining "undue leverage," when pursing such FRAND-related cases with the ITC – the full veto decision is available at the Source link below.
Samsung is free to try to obtain favorable verdicts against Apple through the courts, though the company has not been successful at leveraging its 3G-related FRAND patents against the iPhone maker in the USA or any other countries so far.
The first U.S. Apple vs Samsung lawsuit resulted in a clear win for Apple – even if that $1 billion win has been significantly cut in favor of Samsung, the South Korean giant was not able to prove to the jury that Apple has infringed some of its 3G patents. A final ruling in that case is still not available, as both companies have appealed it.
Samsung has also decided to drop similar cases against Apple in Europe, most likely because local regulators are investigating the company for alleged FRAND patent abuse.
Despite today's ruling, the patent-based conflict between the two giants is far from over, with plenty of lawsuits still to be decided.
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