Samsung on Friday was dealt another blow in its patent battle against Apple, when a German court dismissed one of Samsung's claims against Cupertino.
The Manheim Regional Court rejected a complaint regarding a 3G/UMTS wireless telecom standard - one week after it also dismissed a similar case.
Patent blogger Florian Mueller was in attendance at this morning's hearing and said that "Judge Andreas Voss did not state any particular reasons for the decision."
Mueller said in a blog post that there are several possibilities.
"The outcome of Samsung's first two German actions against Apple may be based on reasons specific to the validity and/or infringement of those patents, in which case Samsung could still prevail over any or all of three other 3G/UMTS patents it is asserting against Apple in Mannheim," Mueller wrote. "Samsung is furthermore suing Apple over two non-standards-related patents, including a patent on a method to enter smileys on a mobile device."
In a statement, Samsung said it was disappointed by the decision. "We will wait for the written grounds of today's judgment, and after thorough review make a decision about a possible appeal to the Higher Regional Court Karlsruhe," a spokeswoman said.
"Today's ruling relates to only one of several patents asserted by Samsung in the Mannheim court, and it is of no indicative value as to whether Apple may be found to infringe other of Samsung's intellectual property rights in Germany," she continued. "A ruling on an additional Samsung patent relating to telecommunications standards is due to be handed down by the Mannheim court in the next several weeks."
Judge Voss also did not give a reason for last week's dismissal.
Apple and Samsung have been battling over patents since April, when Apple fired the first shot. The fight has since expanded to more than two dozen cases around the globe. Apple has had some success in the German court, getting the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet temporarily banned in the country, though Samsung introduced a modified Galaxy Tab 10.1N to get around that ban. Samsung has been less successful in getting the iPhone 4S banned in the country.
Earlier this month, Apple filed two more lawsuits against Samsung in Germany that go after 10 of the company's smartphones and five tablets.
On Monday, meanwhile, a Dutch court denied Apple's request to ban the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the Netherlands.
But as Mueller pointed out today, both companies have money to burn, so don't expect them to back down anytime soon. "They can afford to keep going, and at this point neither litigant has the leverage to force its rival into a settlement," he wrote.
Apple, in particular, has a whopping $97 billion on hand. And while sales of its iPhone 4S helped make it the number-one smartphone maker for the fourth quarter, Samsung edged out Apple as the top smartphone manufacturer for 2011, with 97 devices shipped to Apple's 95 million, according to data released today.
For more, see 6 Things Apple Can Do With Its Cash Hoard.
Editor's Note: This story was updated at 11:30am Eastern with comment from Samsung.