The Seoul Central District Court ruling called for a partial ban on products from both companies, though the verdict did not affect the latest-generation phones — Apple's iPhone 4S or Samsung's Galaxy S III — or the newest iPad. Both sides were also ordered to pay limited damages.
The ban applies only to sales in South Korea, and the ruling is part of a larger, epic struggle over patents and innovation unfolding in nine countries.
The biggest stakes are in the U.S., where Apple is seeking $2.5 billion from Samsung over allegations it has created illegal knockoffs of iPhones and iPads. Hours after the South Korean ruling, a federal jury in San Jose, California, ruled that Samsung ripped off the innovative technology used by Apple to create the iPhone and the iPad.
The jury ordered Samsung to pay Apple $1.05 billion, though an appeal is expected. A judge was expected to rule later on whether Samsung must pull devices from the U.S. market.
The fact that both rulings came Friday was coincidental. The judge overseeing the U.S. case had ordered jurors there to refrain accessing any news regarding the two companies.
The Seoul ruling was a rare victory for Samsung in its arguments that Apple has infringed on its wireless technology patents. Those arguments previously have been shot down by courts in Europe, where judges have ruled that they are part of industry standards that must be licensed under fair terms to competitors.
"This is basically Samsung's victory on its home territory," said patent attorney Jeong Woo-sung. "Out of nine countries, Samsung got the ruling that it wanted for the first time in South Korea."
The ruling ordered Apple to remove the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4, the original iPad and the iPad 2 from store shelves in South Korea, saying that the products infringed on two of Samsung's five disputed patents, including those for telecommunications technology. South Korea is not a big market for Apple.
The court also denied Apple's claim that Samsung had illegally copied its design, ruling that big rectangular screens in cases with rounded corners had existed in products before the iPhone and iPad.
Europe's antitrust regulator launched an investigation earlier this year into whether Samsung was failing to license those patents under fair and reasonable terms.
Samsung, the world's biggest manufacturer of memory chips and liquid crystal displays, supplies some of the key components that go into Apple products, including mobile chips that work as a brain of the iPhone and the iPad.