After Samsung lost a massive case against Apple in California, the South Korean company has been vindicated by a win against its rival in Japan.

On Friday, a Japanese judge ruled that Samsung did not infringe on patents Apple said it violated.

In his ruling, Tokyo District Judge Tamotsu Shoji said that “It’s hard to believe the products belong to the range of technologies of [Apple],” Bloomberg reports.

According to the publication, the judge has ordered Apple to pay for the costs of the lawsuit.

The win isn’t as big as Apple’s win over Samsung in California recently where a nine-member jury awarded the Cupertino, California-based iPhone maker more than $1 billion in damages.

According to The New York Times, Apple sought just 100 million yen or $1.3 million in damages from Samsung.

However, perhaps more important than the monetary win for Samsung is that the win in Japan demonstrates that not every court sides with Apple in their ongoing global legal war, observers note.

Apple and Samsung are currently locked in a bitter legal dispute involving dozens of cases filed in more than 10 countries in the world.

Apple first sued Samsung in California April of last year alleging the South Korean technology “slavishly copy” i-devices with its Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets.

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Original image from GDS-Productions on Flickr (CC). Edited.

About Solon Harmony Dolor

A passion for technology and journalism makes this upcoming writer very interested in social media and technology news. Fresh from finishing an English and Journalism degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman, he aims to bring interesting news to our readers .