A South Korean court has ruled that technology giants Apple and Samsung Electronics infringed each other's patents.
The Seoul Central District Court ordered a partial ban of their products covered by the ruling in South Korea, according to US reports. Recently released products including Apple's iPhone 4S and Samsung's Galaxy S3 are not affected.
This means Apple must stop selling the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad 1 and iPad 2 because the court ruled that the products infringed two of Samsung's five disputed patents.
The South Korean court denied Apple's claim that Samsung had illegally copied its design. The court found the shape and big display screen existed in products before the iPhone and iPad.
But the court ruled that South Korea-based Samsung had infringed on one of Apple's patents, related to the screen's bounce-back feature, which causes the screen to bounce back when a user scrolls to an end image.
The court banned sales of products using the technology, including the Galaxy S2, in South Korea.
Both parties were ordered to pay compensation. Samsung must pay Apple $22,000 while Apple must pay its rival $35,000.
US jury trial in Samsung-Apple patent dispute
The South Korean ruling comes as a jury in San Jose, California, is deliberating in a patent dispute trial between the two technology companies in the US.
Earlier this week, lawyers delivered closing arguments in the first US jury trial in the patent dispute between Samsung and Apple.
Apple lawyers accused Samsung of copying Apple iPhone designs after realising it could not compete, while Samsung lawyers argued that victory for Apple would mean less choice for consumers.
Apple is suing for $2.5bn in damages from Samsung for violating its patented designs and features in the iPad and iPhone and seeking a sales ban of similar Samsung products.
Samsung has counter-sued and is reportedly seeking royalties of as much as 2.4% for each Apple device sold, in relation to five wireless technology patents it claims Apple is infringing.
Jurors in the US Apple-Samsung case are expected to deliberate for another week as they try to decide whether any of 21 different Samsung tablets and smartphones infringed any of Apple's 10 different patents on functionality and whether the look and feel of Apple's products merits protection.
