Samsung Loses Patent Battle to Apple, Some Older Devices Banned in US

After a long and heated patent-infringement dispute between Samsung and Apple, Samsung will not be allowed to import a handful of its smartphone and tablet devices to the U.S. This outcome was solidified when United States president Barack Obama decided not to veto the motion by Apple, who claimed Samsung infringed on two of its iOS device-related patents.

The order for Samsung’s limited exclusion from the U.S. market originated two months ago, and is in place starting today.

The two devices currently affected by the ban include the Transform SPH-M920 and the Continuum SCH-1400. Previously, the Samsung Galaxy S2 and Galaxy Tab 7 were included in this ban, but ultimately fell out of the danger zone as they were found not to infringe on Apple’s headphone patent.

The same happened with the newly-released Galaxy S4.

The Transform and Continuum devices that won’t be allowed for sale in the U.S. allegedly infringed-upon Apple-held patents, one for multi-touch technology and another for headphone-jack sensors. But though Apple has aggressively pursued this exclusion effort, it largely shouldn’t affect Samsung’s performance domestically, though some folks might still have interest in purchasing these devices.

Though there are likely more phones and tablets yet to be affected by this import ban, we don’t know just yet what they are. The reason for that is quite simple: the government is still shutdown, which means the International Trade Commission is shutdown, which means their website is inaccessible.

In fact, not only has the site been non-operational since October 1, no documents or existing case information can be retrieved. Period.

Regardless, Samsung is understandably disappointed in President Obama’s decision.

“It will serve only to reduce competition and limit choice for the American consumer,” said Samsung spokesman Adam Yates in a statement to Bloomberg.

Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman, stated that the company, non-surprisingly, has no comment on the situation.