US International Trade Commission (ITC) judge Thomas Pender said in a preliminary decision that Samsung Electronics has infringed an Apple patent by incorporating the text-selection feature in its devices.
However, Pender said the South Korean firm did not infringe portions of a second Apple patent which enables a device to identify if a microphone or other device is plugged into its microphone jack.
The case is part of an ongoing lawsuit between both the smartphone makers – Apple filed a lawsuit with the ITC in July last year.
The ITC has the right to issue a ban the Samsung products from sale in the US if it finds that the company infringed Apple’s patent.
A final decision in the case is anticipated in August this year.
Last year, Pender said Samsung infringed four of Apple’s patents to make its smartphones and tablets.
Earlier this month, Samsung confirmed in its latest court filing that Apple may receive more than $1.05bn in damages as part of a new patent-infringement trial, compared to its originally awarded damages in August 2012.
Both the firms have had several obstacles in their various legal trials in different countries globally.
Recently, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) invalidated Apple’s bounce back scrolling technology infringement claims against Samsung which it uses on its touchscreen iPhones and iPads.
