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Apple wins ban on Samsung Galaxy devices in Netherlands

Sales of some of Samsung's Galaxy-branded products have been banned by a court in the Netherlands for infringing on patents owned by Apple.

The ban applies to Galaxy products running Android 2.2.1 or later without Samsung's proprietary photo gallery software. The ruling from the Court of The Hague was handed down on Wednesday, and was detailed by Computerworld.

"Apple patented a way to scroll past the edge of a zoomed-in photo and see a glimpse of the next in a series of images, after which the initial photo bounces back onto the screen, a technique that Samsung has used in its Galaxy products," author Loek Essers explained. "Samsung's proprietary photo gallery software replaces that bounce-back feature with a 'blue flash' that illuminates the edge of the image."

It's unknown exactly how many infringing products Samsung has available on the market in the Netherlands. If Samsung doesn't comply, it will be forced to pay a penalty of 100,000 euros, or $129,000 U.S., every day to Apple.

Apple's win comes just a month after it failed to convince a Dutch court that Samsung's products infringe on a separate patent related to multi-touch gestures. The court found that Samsung did not infringe on Apple's pinch-to-zoom patent.

Apple has settled its patent litigation with other companies such as HTC and Nokia, and even its patent battle with Google-owned Motorola may be resolved through arbitration. But there has been no indication that a settlement is near between Samsung and Apple, two bitter rivals that compete in a range of markets including smartphones, computers and tablets.