Obama Administration Vetoes Partial Ban on Import and Sale of Certain Apple Products

Obama Administration Vetoes Partial Ban on Import and Sale of Certain Apple Products

Published on 08-04-2013 12:30 AM

The Obama administration recently vetoed a partial ban on the import and sale of some Apple products, which was granted back in June in a response to a ruling made by the United States International Trade Commission. The ban, which applied to AT&T models of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS and 3G models of the iPad and iPad 2 was granted after the ITC found that the aforementioned products infringed on Samsung Patent No. 7,706,348, titled ?Apparatus and method for encoding/decoding transport format combination indicator in CDMA mobile communication system.?

In a recent letter to Irving A. Williamson, the Chairman of the ITC, the United States Trade Representative Michael B. G. Froman declared the following:

After extensive consultations with the agencies of the Trade Policy Staff Committee and the Trade Policy Review Group [...] I have decided to disapprove the USITC?s determination to issue an exclusion order and cease and desist order in this investigation. The letter was continued by noting that the Obama administration was ?committed to promoting innovation and economic progress, including through providing adequate and effective protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights.? The folks over at The Verge noted that this is the first time since 1987 that the President of the United States has interfered with a decision made by the ITC. This comes after the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) recently criticized this sort of use of sales ban (rather than monetary compensation) as a means of executing patent infringement *** it n effect harms rival products and companies and doesn?t promote a competitive trading environment.

The folks over at CNET previously cited experts who believed it was unlikely for the administration to step in on this case but this was proven to be wrong. It was just last week that Verizon attorney Randal Milch published an open letter calling for presidential intervention in this case to veto the ban. The ban would have otherwise gone into effect on August 5th, 2013. Fortunately for Apple, the ban has been vetoed.

Source: CNET, The Verge, United States Trade Representative

Source: http://feeds.modmyi.com/~r/home_all/~3/GBmUdg4xqiQ/11741-obama-administration-vetoes-partial-ban-import-sale-certain-apple-products.html

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