A Dutch court has found Apple guilty of infringing on a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) related patent owned by Samsung and ordered the company to pay an undisclosed amount in damages.
The Netherlands’ District Court of The Hague ruled that Apple had violated Samsung’s 1188269 patent that includes, "Apparatus For Encoding A Transport Format Combination Indicator For A Communication System".
The ruling marks the first victory for Samsung since it has initiated lawsuits against Apple for infringement of its technical patents.
According to analysts, the verdict may help bring the two technology giants closer to a settlement.
The case centered on over four 3G and connectivity based patents and Apple’s use of Intel and Infineon baseband chips in the iPhone 3G, 3GS and 4 and the iPad 1 and 2 without shelling out any license fees.
The verdict did not consider the iPhone 4S and the new iPad as they employed Qualcomm baseband chips.
"Samsung welcomes the Court’s ruling, which reaffirms Apple’s free-riding of our technological innovation," Samsung said.
"In accordance with the ruling, we will seek adequate compensation for the damages Apple and its products have caused," the company added.
The Dutch decision is significant as a regional court in Mannheim, Germany ruled in March that Apple does not infringe on the same patent.
Apple and Samsung are engaged in a patent war, with around 30 pending cases against each other in about 10 countries.
