Apple Wins Import Ban on Some Samsung Phones

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By Christina Warren2013-08-09 15:38:38 -0700

The Apple-Samsung patent war got real Friday. The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has ordered a ban on the import and sale of certain Samsung smartphones.

The ITC found that Samsung was infringed on two of Apple's patents.

See also: Apple vs. Samsung: The Patent Wars, Explained [INFOGRAPHIC]

Although this is a win for Apple, Samsung was not found guilty of infringing any of Apple's design patents. Instead, Friday's ITC ruling focuses on a pair of patents connected to touchscreen technology and I/O circuitry.

The ITC ruled that devices that already have workarounds to the asserted patents are not infringing and thus, not subject to an exclusion order.

It's not clear from the document what specific Samsung products are at risk, but we'll update this post as that information becomes clear.

The offending Samsung devices — which likely include older, less popular devices (as opposed to the current crop of Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note products) — will be banned from import/sale after a 60-day review period.

The Obama administration could always veto the latest ITC bans, as it did last week in a separate Apple/Samsung ITC dispute. In that case, the administration came to Apple's aid and overruled a ban that would have kept certain Apple products out of the United States.

Image: Jung Yeon-Je, Getty

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