ITC to give final ruling on Apple's Samsung complaint Aug. 1

A final ruling in one of Apple's
suits against Samsung will have
to wait until August of this year,
as a judge for the International
Trade Commission on
Wednesday scheduled a final
ruling for the first of that month.
Florian Mueller's Foss Patents reported
Wednesday that Administrative Law Judge
Thomas B. Pender entered a scheduling
order setting Aug. 1, 2013, as a target
final decision date. Pender will have to
make a remand initial determination on or
before April 1.
The ruling will concern Pender's October
decision that found Samsung in violation
of three Apple utility patents and one
design patent. Pender recommended that
the ITC institute a U.S. import ban on
certain Samsung products due to their
infringement of Apple patents on
multitouch, providing translucent images
on a display, headphone plug detection
circuitry, and the design of the original
iPhone.
The ITC in January sent two of the four
asserted patents — audio jack detection
and translucent image display — back to
Pender for reconsideration.
Should Pender eventually rule in Apple's
favor, Mueller notes, import bans on
infringing Galaxy products are not certain.
Samsung has already designed
workarounds for several of the alleged
violations, though it remains unclear the
extent to which such alterations will sway
the court.