A judge from the International Trade Commission gave a preliminary ruling on March 26th that Samsung is infringing on yet another Apple patent. The patent is for a “method and apparatus for providing translucent images on a computer display.” As always, it’s quite broad. Samsung infringes on Apple’s patent with its text selection feature in the Android browser and the translucent buttons in the Photo Gallery app.
Devices infringing could face some detrimental bans in the United States. Possible candidates for infringement include handsets in Samsung’s Galaxy line, Nexus line, and the Transform. The ruling is only preliminary and a final decision is set to be made some time in August.
Apple filed these complaints in 2011. The second one of Apple’s patents in question was struck down by the judge. It was for the technology that can determine whether there’s a microphone is plugged into the microphone jack of a device. The judge ruled that Samsung did not infringe on this.
Though the patent is relatively minor, it does pose a significant threat to Samsung. It’s just another shot fired in the never-ending war between Samsung and Apple, and it doesn’t look like Apple is willing to raise the white flag any time soon.