The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that Apple is entitled to blocking competitors from using its intellectual property, reports Bloomberg (http://tinyurl.com/pt6kca3).
The court said Apple was entitled to a narrow order that prevents Samsung from using Apple’s slide-to-unlock, autocorrect and quicklinks features. To rule otherwise would eliminate patent rights of inventors of certain features in multicomponent devices, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington said in an opinion posted on its electronic docket.
This is all part of an ongoing, global legal battle. Apple and Samsung had filed more than 30 lawsuits against each other across four continents. For example, Apple alleges that Samsung copied the slide-to-unlock technology of its iPhone and iPad devices. On May 14, 2014, an U.S. appeals court affirmed a decision by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) that Apple is innocent of violating three patents owned by Samsung. Earlier that month, a jury handed back a verdict in the latest Apple-Samsung legal battle over patent infringement.