Cupertino tech giant Apple may have scored a major legal victory on Friday when the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled in its favour in a patent infringement lawsuit it filed against rival Samsung Electronics of South Korea on touchscreen technology and audio socket on devices. But is it a pyrrhic victory?

With the court decision, Samsung is banned from importing to the U.S. and selling some of its older gadgets covered by the patent, although the decision did not specify which devices. One of the patents is the so-called Steve Jobs patent, which involves the touchscreen technology used in smartphones and tablets that Samsung produces.

However, the ITC decision could not be implemented yet because the federal government has 60 days to confirm the court's order. This will place pressure on U.S. President Barack Obama whose partiality may be questioned by the global community if he favours Apple the second time.

Last week, Mr Obama reversed the ITC ruling for a separate Apple-Samsung case for the court that ordered the ban on import of older Apple products to the U.S. on the ground that it would have an economic impact on the U.S. firm. The question that could be thrown now to the president is: If the negative economic impact of the ITC decision would be felt by a foreign company, particularly a tough competitor of a giant American firm, would he let national pride take over impartiality?

But even if Mr Obama would favour Apple for the second time, it could still be an empty court victory for Apple which actually just got the ITC's nod on two out of six patent infringement claims it presented.

Apple applauded the court decision, saying, "With today's decision, the ITC has joined courts around the world in Japan, Korea, Germany, Netherlands and California by standing up for innovation and rejecting Samsung's blatant copying of Apple's products."

Samsung, which said it is disappointed with the ITC decision, said the ban would not affect the availability of its new products such as the Galaxy S4 and the soon-to-be-released Galaxy Note 3 since it has made design changes that no longer use the features on the two patents of Apple.

"We have already taken measures to ensure that all of our products will continue to be available in the United States," a Samsung spokesman said.

And these products, both in the smartphone and tablet categories are pummeling Apple sales in global sales, according to the latest data of research firm IDC. The report said that in the second quarter of 2013, Apple's share in the smartphone market further slipped to 13.2 per cent from 16.6 per cent a year ago.

"The proper focus for the smartphone industry is not a global war in the courts, but fair competition in the marketplace," Samsung added.

RELATED STORIES