Apple has lost the latest round in its series of worldwide patent disputes with South Korean rival Samsung Electronics, after a Japanese court ruled that the latter did not infringe on Cupertino's media transfer technology.

According to Bloomberg's report on Friday, Tokyo District Judge Tamotsu Shoji cleared Samsung's Galaxy smartphones and the Galaxy Tab of having violating Apple's patent on synchronizing music and video data in mobile devices to backend servers.

Cupertino had sought 100 million yen (US$1.27 million) in damages, the report noted.

The latest ruling followed those issued by courts in South Korea and the United States earlier in August. The Korean court found that both companies had infringed on each other's patents, with Samsung having to pay 25 million won (US$22,000) for violating one patent and Apple penalized 20 million won (US$17,649) for each of the two Samsung patents it violated.

The verdict issued by the U.S. court was more clear-cut, after a jury found Samsung to havewillfully and knowingly infringed on Apple's patents. As a result, Samsung has to pay US$1.05 billion to Apple while the latter has filed to ban eight of the Korean phonemaker's smartphones in addition to the existing sales ban of its Galaxy 10.1 tablet.

(Source:ZDNET)