Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL): ITC finds Samsung guilty of violating patents

Some you win and some you lose.

About a couple of days after a Dutch court ruled that Samsung had not violated an Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) patent, the U.S. International Trade Commission on Wednesday fund the Korean company in violation of four Apple patents.

ITC's Judge Thomas Pender found that Samsung infringed on three Apple utility patents and one design patent, meaning the Galaxy maker might face an import ban if the six-member Commission agrees with the ruling in a final determination, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Apple had filed a complaint with the ITC in July 2011, a countersuit to a complaint by Samsung which had said that Apple's iPhones, iPad and iPod had all violated patents related to wireless technologies.

Later Apple had made some changes to its allegations, removing the one related to physical push buttons and 15 claims regarding plug-in detections and multi-touch patents.

Apple and Samsung are fighting patent battles against each other in about half a dozen courts across continents. At the core of these battles is the fight for supremacy in the smartphones segment which has been estimated as worth over $200 billion.

The Cupertino company has maintained that Samsung has slavishly copied the designs of its iPhones and iPads and used them to build its Galaxy range of smartphones, in which segment it is a market leader.

ITC's initial decision was scheduled to be handed down last week. Like Judge Pender's ruling, the September decision must undergo a final review by the Commission.