An Italian judge has shot down Samsung's efforts to ban the Apple iPhone 4S in the country.
Italy's Ansa.it reports that a judge in Milan will not pull the popular Apple smartphone from store shelves in the region—three months after Samsung filed a preliminary injunction motion requesting that the court block its sale.
"We are disappointed with today's decision by the Milan court regarding Samsung's preliminary injunction motion," a Samsung spokesman said in a statement. "We will review the ruling and consider all available measures to further protect our intellectual property rights and stop this free riding on our technology."
"Over many years, Samsung has pioneered the development of technologies and protocols for the efficient and reliable functioning of telecommunications networks and devices," Samsung continued. "While Samsung has at all times met its obligations to the fair licensing of its telecommunications standards-related patents, Apple has infringed by using without license Samsung's intellectual property in its mobile devices."
In late October, the same court denied an initial request to ban the iPhone 4S in Italy, but agreed to give Samsung and Apple more time to submit information before issuing a final ruling.
Specifically, Samsung's complaint focused on two patent infringements related to wireless telecommunications technology, or Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) standards for 3G mobile handsets. "The infringed technology is essential to the reliable functioning of telecom networks and devices and Samsung believes that Apple's violation as being too severe and that the iPhone 4S should be barred from sales," Samsung said last year.
The Italy case is part of the larger patent battle between Samsung and Apple that kicked off in April, when Apple sued Samsung for copying the look and feel of its iPhone and iPad in its flagship Galaxy S line of devices. The battle has since expanded to about two dozen courts. Apple has already succeeded in getting the Galaxy Tab 10.1 temporarily banned in Germany and, for a brief time, in Australia.
Samsung has not had as much luck; requests to have the iPhone 4S banned have also been denied in France and in the Netherlands. Similar efforts are ongoing in Japan and Australia.
Last month, however, a U.S. judge denied Apple's request for a preliminary injunction against four Samsung products that Cupertino claims infringes upon its patents.
Patent blogger Florian Mueller said today that Apple and Samsung have been "trying to rush things in order to score some [quick] wins of rulings with a profound disruptive impact on each other's business. This didn't work. They're both going to have to focus on regular, full-blown proceedings rather than the fast-track proceedings triggered by requests for preliminary injunctions."
For more, see PCMag's full review of the iPhone 4S and the slideshow below.