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Obama Administration Overrules iPhone Trade Ban

Posted by Soulskill on from the did-not-see-that-one-coming dept.

Back in June, the U.S. International Trade Commission issued an import ban on the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 3G due to patent violations. Now, the White House has exercised its privilege to overrule the ban. In his letter to the ITC (PDF), Ambassador Michael Froman said 'he was not making a decision about the merits of Samsung's case, or its right to seek compensation. Rather, he emphasized that because the patent in question was now a widely held technology standard, banning the products in question would be too disruptive to consumers and the economy.' This is the first time an ITC decision has been overruled since 1987.

13 of 397 comments (clear)

  1. Strangely... by kervin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The same was not done for Samsung when their products were banned over flimsier design patents

    1. Re:Strangely... by Rantank · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Seems to me the Prez just gave permission for good wholesome American companies to take on anyone they like, and if they lose in any way, shape or form, he'll make sure there's no real harm done. I wonder how long before foreign companies start ring-fencing America as just too expensive and corrupt to operate in.

    2. Re:Strangely... by MachineShedFred · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Strangely, design patents are not standard-essential, so the two incidents are not directly comparable.

      Nice try though.

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    3. Re:Strangely... by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Of course, if Apple made its products in California, it wouldn't have to import them from its Chinese suppliers.

    4. Re:Strangely... by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And who cares about some foreign companies thinking the US is too expensive to operate in. The sooner they leave the sooner the jobs farmed out come back to the US.

      Senator Smoot? Representative Hawley? Is that you?

      Note that the last time we tried this particular technique to bring jobs back to the US, we got what is colloquially known as the "Great Depression".

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    5. Re:Strangely... by Tough+Love · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's the President's job to put US interests above all others.

      But not above the rule of law.

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  2. By rights, overturning should be temporary by elwinc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It would be very wrong of the White House to give one US corporation carte-blanche to ignore a patent. Although the ITC ban may be too strong a response, there's still the fact that Apple has been ignoring a patent for years. They shouldn't be free to continue indefinitely.

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  3. Curiouser and curiouser by OpenSourced · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Rather, he emphasized that because the patent in question was now a widely held technology standard, banning the products in question would be too disruptive to consumers and the economy

    That argument could be used to sooooo many other patent litigations, and somehow never is, except when the affected part is a big American company.

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  4. Sure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Money buys a lot.

    Double standards if nothing else.

    1. Re:Sure by Kartu · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Except you can't consider monster multi-nationals to belong to any country, once you realize where do they pay their taxes...

  5. Re:You know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It also probably doesn't hurt that Apple is a US based corporation, while Samsung is Korean. I'd bet if this was a Samsung vs Asus or Sony dispute, the Obama administration would not have stepped in.

  6. Re:You know by dmbasso · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now when a 3rd-world country decides to ignore pharmaceutical patents to save its people from dying, that is crossing the line! Retaliation through economic restrictions must apply!

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  7. Re:You know by Dunbal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    US based corporation? You mean the one publicly traded on the stock exchange, with manufacturing facilities in China? The one that ships iPhones and iPads directly from China? Or is it because they have an office in Cupertino that you consider them US based?

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