Smartphones: Samsung avoids sales ban with switch
Smartphones from Samsung were banned in the Netherlands because of Apple patent dispute. So Samsung replaced the disputed feature in its smartphones, news report says.
Visitors look at mobile products near the Samsung Electronics smartphone Galaxy S II at a showroom in Seoul, South Korea earlier this month. To get around a Dutch ban on its smartphones because of a patent dispute with Apple, Samsung replaced a browsing feature, according to a news report.
Lee Jin-man/AP/File
SEOUL, South Korea
Samsung Electronics is reportedly replacing a Galaxy smartphone feature to dodge a sales ban in the Netherlands.
The world's No. 2 mobile phone maker is in an intensifying patent fight with Apple Inc. over smartphones and tablet computers that spans 10 countries.
Yonhap news agency said Wednesday that Samsung will remove a feature that Dutch judges called a patent violation and replace it with a different method of browsing pictures on the smartphone that competes with the iPhone.
A Dutch court injunction against three Galaxy mobile devices is due to take effect on Thursday.
The Netherlands is just one of the countries where Samsung has faced a sales ban.