WASHINGTON, June 4 (UPI) -- The U.S. International Trade Commission has ruled Apple violated a Samsung patent and has ordered a limited import ban on certain products.
The ban, the latest incident in a long-running patent battle between the two companies, applies only to certain AT&T-specific products, covering the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, the original iPad 3G and the iPad 2 3G, techcrunch.com reported Tuesday.
The ITC has issued a preliminary cease and desist order that prohibits the sale and distribution in the Unites States of older Apple products that infringe on Samsung's patent regarding the UMTS 3G cellular standard.
If any appeals fail and the decision is upheld, Apple would be unable to sell the devices in question in the United States since they would be barred from bringing them into the country from its overseas suppliers and manufacturing facilities.
While the ban would affect only older devices on AT&T because it relates to a specific component used before wider release of iPhone models with multi-band support, and those devices are all ending the end of their sales life, it could have an impact on small wireless carriers and education markets that tend to rely heavily on older, less expensive models of Apple devices.
The ITC's decision will not go into effect immediately and could be overridden by the federal circuit courts of appeal or the White House in the next 60 days.
If the decision is not overturned, Apple will be able to appeal.
