A South Korean court has ruled that Apple and Samsung have both infringed each other’s patents in designing their respective mobile devices.

In what I believe is a legal example of a “cop out”, both parties have been found guilty. Samsung were found to have violated Apple’s “bounce back” function, the feature that makes a page bounce back when you reach the end of it, whilst Apple were found to have violated a Samsung patent relating to telecom standards, including the transfer and transmission of data.

The court ruled that Samsung had done enough to differentiate its products from Apple

The court also ruled against Apple’s claims that Samsung had copied its products.

“There are lots of external design similarities between the iPhone and Galaxy S, such as rounded corners and large screens… but these similarities had been documented in previous products… Given that it’s very limited to make big design changes in touch screen based mobile products in general… and the defendant [Samsung] differentiated its products with three buttons in the front and adopted different designs in camera and [on the] side, the two products have a different look,”

Sanctions include a sales ban on the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, the iPad and the iPad 2, whilst Samsung products affected include the Galaxy SI, SII, the Galaxy Tab and the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Apple were made to pay Samsung 40m won, around $35,000 (or peanuts if you’re Tim Cook). Samsung were also made to pay Apple a slightly smaller fee of 25m won.

This ruling is interesting because it should give us some insight into the much more significant trial taking place in San Jose. What’s your reaction to the ruling? Leave your comments below!

@TiP_Stephen