iApple Products

Over the last couple of years, Apple and its competitors have fought so many patent cases against one another in so many courts that keeping score has nearly become a fool's errand.

But if a final ruling in a case against Samsung goes Apple's way on Friday, Apple would clearly hold the momentum in the patent disputes engulfing the mobile market.

The federal International Trade Commission is expected to say on Friday whether it will uphold a preliminary finding that Samsung mobile products violated a handful of Apple patents. A decision against Samsung by the commission could result in an import ban on some of the company's mobile devices.

A decision for Apple would be its second major legal win against Samsung in less than a week. On Saturday, the Obama administration vetoed the federal commission's ban on Apple mobile products in a separate case brought by Samsung.

That rare move - the first time for such a veto since 1987 - was a major victory for Apple and other companies that had argued that disputes over a class of patents known as standards-essential patents should not lead to import bans by the trade commission.

Carolina Milanesi, a Gartner analyst, said that if Apple were to score a second victory with the International Trade Commission this week, the company would climb to a significant position of power in patent feuds - not just against Samsung, but against other companies as well.

"Apple can use that as a warning and say, 'Look, if it hasn't worked with Samsung, why would it work with you?'" she said. "It's not real power. It's more like a mind game."

The patent disputes have led to a possible political skirmish between the United States and South Korea, where Samsung is a celebrated hometown legend. The decision on Saturday vexed the South Korean government, which issued a statement expressing concern that the ruling may have violated Samsung's patent rights. The government pledged to watch the commission's ruling on Friday in the separate case for fairness.

Essential patents, like those at the center of the dispute in Saturday's veto, cover basic technologies that companies have to support in their products to comply with industry standards.

In the case between Apple and Samsung, the standard involved wireless communications. The Obama administration said it overruled the decision on Saturday partly because it feared essential patents, which holders agree to license on reasonable terms, were being used in ways that could hurt competition and consumers. Apple and Samsung disagreed on whether Samsung was offering to license essential patents on reasonable terms.

The decision on Friday is not over essential patents. But if the commission hands Apple another victory, Robert P. Merges, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, believes the Obama administration could again overrule any import ban the commission puts in place, as part of a broader strategy to diminish the power of patent litigation as an industry weapon.

"I think there are a lot of political implications," he said, referring to the possible reaction by other governments. "You'll have the obvious favoring-the-home-team problem. But I would be shocked if they didn't think this through carefully."