Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL): Samsung not infringe certain Apple’s patent to multi-touch

It was another setback for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its patents battle against Samsung.

A court in The Netherlands on Wednesday ruled that the Korean consumer electronics company did not infringe on a certain Apple patent related to multi-touch technology.

"With these products Samsung does not infringe the claims that Apple has made," the court said in its ruling.

An earlier ruling had found that Samsung had not copied the design patents of the iPad with the Galaxy 10.1.

According to the court, Samsung did not infringe on the iPhone maker's pinch-to-zoom patent. In fact Apple has asserted this particular property as its proprietary feature and it figures in many of its battles against other handset makers.

Apple has already been denied an injunction request on Samsung’s products based on this particular patent by the Dutch court. It has also failed to defend its multi-touch patent in Britain against HTC as well as in Germany against Samsung and Motorola.

On Tuesday the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office tentatively invalidated Apple's "rubber banding" patent, an IP that was successfully asserted against Samsung in the landmark Apple v. Samsung jury trial.

These ruling by various courts will have a strong bearing on what Judge Lucy Koh decides when the patents battle between the two companies goes on trial again in December.

Apple has the chance to appeal the USPTO's decision, or somehow persuade the agency that its invention was new and valid. It is unclear how Judge Koh will decide, but if the patent is found to be invalid, all claims against Samsung associated with the invention will be nullified, Apple Insider said.