Hand-held gizmo producers Samsung and Apple continue to go at it hammer-and-tong in their patent disputes, with the South Korean giant winning the latest court battle.

The patent war is being fought on different battle fields across the globe, including Japan, where Apple has sued Samsung. The Japanese court has determined, however, that the technology used by Samsung in smartphone and tablets does not infringe on Apple's patents on music and video synchronisation. Apple will have to pay legal costs.

US technological blue-chip Apple won an important legal battle on home turf in a California court case last week against Samsung over patent infringements, and although the South Korean company announced that it would appeal the decision, Apple celebrated a victory that could prevent its rival from selling some of its devices in the United States.

On Samsung's home patch, a South Korean court awarded a split-decision victory to Samsung, with Apple, now the most highly valued quoted firm of all time, found guilty by the court of infringing two of Samsung's wireless patents, while Korean behemoth Samsung was found guilty of infringing one Apple patent, relating to a "bounce-back" touch-screen feature which defines the boundaries of a screen display.

Apple's victory in the US was undoubtedly a far more significant one than Samsung's win in South Korea. For one thing, South Korea is a relatively small market for Apple so the court's instruction to Apple to stop selling some of its older products (iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, the iPad and iPad 2) in the country won't hurt the company much. On top of that, damages awarded to both sides were for trivial amounts: Samsung got fined around £14,000 and Apple around £22,000.

In the California court decision, Samsung got stung for $1bn in damages, the largest ever sum in a patent infringement case; furthermore, Samsung may have to stop selling some of its smartphones in the US, a major market for the South Korean colossus.

Apple is seeking injunctions against the sale of eight devices, with the hearing for that suit set to start on December 6th.

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