Apple wins legal victory against Samsung in South Korea

A South Korean court has handed Samsung Electronics an unexpected loss on its home turf, dismissing claims that Apple violated three of Samsung’s mobile patents.

The Seoul Central District Court rejected Samsung’s request for a sales ban on older iPhones and iPads in South Korea, the latest setback for the smartphone maker in a long-running patent battle with its US rival. Samsung sued Apple in South Korea in March 2012, seeking Won100m in damages. It claimed that the US company’s products infringed its mobile messaging patents. But the Seoul court ruled that Apple products, including the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5 and iPad 2, did not violate two of the patents in dispute, and that the US group did not use Samsung’s technology for the third patent.