Many had thought that the plethora of law suits that we saw earlier this year between smartphone giants Samsung and Apple has all but disappeared, but now it has emerged that Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest smartphone maker, on Thursday suffered a legal defeat against Apple Inc. on its home turf after a local court ruled that Apple had not in fact violated its patents.

The Seoul Central District Court ruled that Apple, the No. 2 maker of smartphones, did not infringe three patents held by Samsung, dealing a further blow to the South Korean tech giant that has been in a multi-billion dollar patent war in the courts of more than 10 countries, including the U.S. and Japan.

Although this news will be a set back from Samsung, there will be much to celebrate as well, at year's end, as the company has emerged from one of the fiercest corporate sales battles (Apple vs Samsung) this year, emerging as the No. 1 smartphone manufacturer in the World.

Original post: Yonhap News