Two cases in the patent battle between Samsung and Apple in Germany were dismissed today - one that Samsung brought against Apple regarding 3G essential patents and one that Apple brought against Samsung regarding slide-to-unlock technology.
But as patent blogger Florian Mueller pointed out, Apple still had a rather successful week on the patent litigation front, winning several other complaints.
In today's case, however, Judge Andreas Voss of the Mannheim Regional Court threw out a Samsung complaint over 3G/UMTS-essential patents, the third loss in a row for Samsung on this issue.
Samsung vowed to appeal to the Higher Regional Court Karlsruhe. "We are disappointed that the court did not share our views regarding the infringement by Apple of this specific patent in Germany," Samsung said in a statement.
In a blog post, Mueller said Samsung lost "because the patent covers a method to computate a certain mathematical result, but the specifications of 3G/UMTS don't require a phone to perform the computation: it just has to use the result, and the owner of a path doesn't necessarily own the destination exclusively, at least not in a case like this."
Samsung, meanwhile, said it will still pursue the four additional patent complaints it filed in Germany back in December, one of which included a method for entering emoticons.
"We will continue to assert our intellectual property rights and defend against Apple's claims to ensure our continued ability to provide innovative mobile products to consumers," Samsung said.
Judge Voss also ruled against Apple on slide-to-unlock, one of two pending cases on the issue. The second is expected to be addressed on March 16, Mueller said.
Mueller, who attended the hearing in Germany, suggested that "today's decision does not reduce the likelihood of success of Apple's other slide-to-unlock case against Samsung."
"The whole issue here that made Apple lose ... is just the interpretation of certain key terms ('predefined,' 'displayed,' 'path')," he wrote. "The slide-to-unlock utility model has a large number of claims, and some of those are much broader and don't have the related limitations. Therefore, today's decision does not mean anything for the decisions on the broader claims of the utility model that will come down in two weeks' time."
Earlier this month, Apple secured a victory over Motorola regarding slide-to-unlock technology.
Things are far from over in Mannheim, meanwhile. Only four of at least 14 cases between Apple and Samsung there have been ruled on, Mueller said.
But Apple still had a good week. The Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court suspended the enforcement of a ruling by the Mannheim Regional Court, preventing Motorola from further enforcement of its so-called standard-essential patent injunction against Apple in Germany. There were two other, smaller victories, but "in terms of strategic relevance, the Karlsruhe FRAND decision was hugely more important than the other three combined," Mueller said today.