Tokyo court says Samsung infringed on Apple 'bounce-back' patent

A Tokyo court ruled on Friday that Samsung had infringed on rival Apple’s patent for a “bounce-back” feature on earlier models of its popular smartphones. Samsung and Apple, the world’s top two smartphone makers, are fighting patent disputes in 10 countries as they compete to dominate the lucrative mobile market and win customers with their latest gadgets.

Apple claimed that Samsung had copied the “bounce-back”, wherein icons on its smartphones and tablets quiver back when users scroll to the end of an electronic document. Samsung has already changed its interface on recent models to show a blue line at the end of documents.

The Japanese court’s decision comes after the U.S. Patent and Trademark office judged in April that Apple’s patent for the bounce-back feature was invalid, allowing older Samsung models that had a similar feature to remain on sale.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

A Tokyo Court ruled that Samsung has infringed on one of Apple’s patents

This is not the first time that Apple and Samsung have had differences. As reported earlier, the companies were at loggerheads over an Apple patent for text-selection feature on iPhones and iPads. Apple also wanted to add Samsung’s flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4, to the list of infringing products, after analysing the product.

Apple is not the only company that went up against Samsung over patent infringement issues. Finnish mobile manufacturer Nokia was also seen filing a brief in tandem with Apple to secure permanent injunctions against several of Samsung’s smartphones. In addition to that, Samsung has also come under fire for using component supplies to gain a competitive edge, with mobile phone manufacture HTC accusing Samsung of deliberately delaying the production of its Desire smartphone.     

With inputs from Reuters