by Samsung suffered a massive blow in its long war against frenemy Apple this weekend when President Obama vetoed the ITC’s decision to ban imports of the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3G, and the iPad 2 into the USA. As reported by the Wall Street Journal (via 9to5Mac), the veto sliced a full 1 billion dollars off of Samsung’s market value, representing a 0.9 percent loss.
Oddly enough, this is the first time a U.S. president has vetoed an ITC ban since 1987, when President Reagan exercised the power in a case involving (yes) Samsung, according to Bloomberg. The Financial Times has since reported that Samsung is appealing the decision to the ITC (International Trade Commission), even though the President’s veto overrides any decision by the organization.
There’s a somewhat legitimate reason for that. In the Financial Times’ words, “Samsung revealed on Monday that it had filed a court appeal on July 18 against the original ITC finding, because the ITC ruled that Apple had infringed only one patent, rather than finding in favour of Samsung on all four patents it had claimed were violated.”
Bloomberg added that the appeal was filed at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington according to a spokesman, followed by an announcement that a oral hearing was scheduled for the first quarter of next year. But as 9to5Mac points out, either way, this is a victory for Apple. Even if something transpires after the hearing, the impact will be significantly less devastating because new models of the devices will have already been released by then.
As MacRumors reports, Apple won the first victory in the struggle against Samsung, when a judge awarded Apple $1 billion last year after a patent suit. In March, however, a judge halved that amount. As you might recall, Apple is currently involved in a suit alleging that Samsung stole some of its own patents.
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