The Obama administration's decision in August to veto a looming import ban on some iPhones and iPads was a huge relief for Apple Inc., and a big setback for archrival Samsung Electronics Co. But its impact may be to weaken the lure of the International Trade Commission as a venue for picking patent battles, especially in cases involving industrywide technical standards.
Samsung's lawyers at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan persuaded an ITC panel to rule in June that certain older iPhones and iPads infringed a Samsung patent. The ITC was scheduled to issue an exclusion order banning importation of the products on Sunday, August 4, but U.S. Trade Representative Michael Forman announced on August 3 that his agency was reversing the ruling. It was the first time in more than 25 years that the White House overruled an ITC import ban.
