A Dutch court on Wednesday ruled that Samsung's Galaxy smartphones and tablets do not infringe on a certain Apple patent regarding multitouch technology.
The ruling on Apple's multitouch utility patent, first reported by Reuters, is another Dutch loss for the company, and comes months after an appeals court found that Samsung did not infringe on the iPad's design patents with the Galaxy 10.1.
"With these products Samsung does not infringe the claims that Apple has made," the court said in its ruling.
The Hague found that Samsung did not infringe on Apple's pinch-to-zoom patent, a property asserted multiple times against competing handset makers to little success. Apple was previously denied an injunction request of Samsung's products based on the patent by the Dutch court in 2011. The multitouch patent was also asserted unsuccessfully in Britain against HTC, as well as in Germany against Samsung and Motorola.
Wednesday's decision marks another setback for Apple in the company's ongoing patent battle with Samsung. It was reported on Tuesday that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office tentatively invalidated Apple's "rubber banding" patent, an IP that was successfully asserted against Samsung in the landmark Apple v. Samsung jury trial. With the California suit still going through post-trial motions, Presiding Judge Lucy Koh will be taking the new information into consideration, especially in regard to Samsung's Rule 50 motions, or those that overrule the jury.
Apple has the chance to appeal the USPTO's decision, or somehow persuade the agency that its invention was new and valid. It is unclear how Judge Koh will decide, but if the patent is found to be invalid, all claims against Samsung associated with the invention will be nullified.