President Barack Obama has declined to exercise his veto to prevent a ban on imports of some Samsung products involved in the Korean firm’s ongoing patents battle with Apple, even though he did veto a similar action against Apple devices.
Samsung had requested that the government veto the court-ordered ban on gadgets which were found by the US International Trade Commission to infringe on two Apple patents. It is very rare for presidents to veto ITC decisions, but in August, Obama did overturn an ITC ruling ‘ the first time this had happened since 1987 ‘ which would have barred Apple products concerned in another of the court fights with its Korean rival.
This veto was on the basis that the bar would have harmed competition in the US, but apparently the administration did not take the same view of the Samsung devices ,even though they have very high market share in the US.
However, the ruling will mainly affect older products, and given Samsung’s rapid upgrade cycle, it is unlikely to suffer too badly. The ban relates to two Apple patents concerning touchscreen technology and headphone jacks, and newer Samsung products such as the Galaxy S4 have worked around these.