By Jessica Hodgson LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Samsung Electronics Co (005930.SE) has won the latest skirmish in a broader patents war against Apple Inc. (AAPL) as the High Court of England and Wales ruled that three of Samsung's Galaxy touch-screen tablet products don't infringe Apple's patents. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, the Galaxy Tab 8.9, and the Galaxy Tab 7.7. are "different" from an Apple tablet design, and do not infringe Apple's patents, the High Court found. Judge Birss QC, in the ruling published Monday, cited examples of phone designs with similar features to Apple's products which predate the Apple versions. It also said the products of Apple and Samsung would be distinguishably different to informed users of tablets, saying that what made Apple's stand out was their sense of "cool." "Samsung's tablets "do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design," Judge Birss said in the ruling. "They are not as cool." Samsung said the judgement "affirms our position that our Galaxy Tab products do not infringe Apple's registered design right. As the ruling proves, the origins of Apple's registered design features can be found in numerous examples of prior art." An Apple spokesman countered, in a reiteration of an earlier press release: "It's no coincidence that Samsung's latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging. This kind of blatant copying is wrong and, as we've said many times before, we need to protect Apple's intellectual property when companies steal our ideas." The case is one of a sprawling series of legal battles between Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant Apple and South Korean consumer electronics manufacturer Samsung, which originated in April 2011 when Apple sued Samsung for patent infringement in northern California, arguing Samsung's products infringe its iPhone and iPad. Samsung countered with infringement lawsuits of its own and cases are now taking place in some 10 countries. Apple has won similar injunctions in other jurisdictions, forcing Samsung to redesign its device for those markets. In late June a California judge issued an injunction banning sales of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 touch-screen tablet at the request of Apple Inc in the first injunction granted in the U.S. The preliminary injunction bars Samsung from making or selling the tablet, or any similar device, in the U.S. A full trial is scheduled to start in late July. -Write to jessica.hodgson@dowjones.com
