Local ban on Apple sales suspended

A court ban on the sale of certain Apple products in Korea has been suspended.

The Seoul District Central Court said yesterday that it accepted Apple’s request to suspend the sales ban on Sept. 14.

The court also said it accepted an Apple proposal to put up 5 billion won ($4.5 million) as a deposit until a high court rules on an appeal.

The sales of all Apple products will continue until the appeal ruling.

On Aug. 24, the Seoul court ruled in favor of rival Samsung Electronics on a patent lawsuit, concluding that Apple violated two out of five wireless technologies developed by the Korea company.

As a result the court banned the sale of the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad and iPad 2. It did not ban sales of the most recent versions of the iPhone or iPad.

Apple filed an appeal on Sept. 5 and requested the ban be postponed.

The Seoul court ruled that Samsung violated an Apple patent and banned the sale of its Galaxy S2 and Galaxy Tab 2.

It did not include Samsung’s latest products, such as its Galaxy S3 flagship smartphone.

Although the Korean tech giant filed an appeal, it hasn’t asked for the ban to be suspended.

By Lee Ho-jeong [ojlee82@joongang.co.kr]