[JURIST] A Tokyo court on Friday dismissed a claim by Apple that Samsung Electronics [corporate websites] violated Apple’s patents with its smartphones and tablets. The technology at issued involved synchronizing music and video data [Bloomberg report]. The judge stated that Samsung’s technology did not fall within the scope of Apple’s patents. Apple had claimed USD $1.3 million in damages. The Tokyo court also dismissed Apple’s request for an injunction to block the sale of eight Samsung products in Japan. Apple was ordered to pay Samsung’s litigation costs as a result of the verdict. Analysts suggest that this ruling may turn the tide in the companies’ global patent battle in favor of Samsung.

Apple and Samsung have been embroiled in continuous patent litigation in courts around the world. This ruling comes on the heels of Apple winning a USD $1.05 billion judgment [JURIST report] against Samsung last week in the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website]. The suit covered everything from the shape and design of the competing companies’ tablets and smartphones to the technology employed in the devices’ software interface. Following the jury award Apple moved to block [JURIST report] eight Samsung products from being produced and sold in the US on Tuesday. Last week a South Korean court found that Apple and Samsung had violated each others’ patents [JURIST report] and banned the sales of some of the companies’ products in the country. In July a UK court ruled [JURIST report] that Samsung tablets do not infringe on Apple’s design. Earlier in July a federal judge issued an injunction [JURIST report] against Samsung to stop the sale of its Galaxy Nexus smartphone in the US. A week earlier the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit had rejected [Bloomberg report; CAFC notice] Samsung’s appeal of the decision that remanded the case to the district court giving Apple another opportunity to ban Samsung’s Galaxy products in the states after it partially reversed [JURIST report] the district court’s refusal to grant a temporary injunction for Apple against Samsung. Apple’s request for a temporary injunction was denied [JURIST report] by the district court in December.