Samsung Electronics has won another chance to convince a U.S. trade agency that Apple Inc.’s flagship products such as the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 have infringed the firm’s patents.

The U.S. International Trade Commission announced on Monday that it will review “in its entirety” its initial determination by Judge James Gildea in September that Apple violated none of the four Samsung patents in question.

“Having examined the record of this investigation, including the initial determination, the petitions for review, and the responses thereto, the commission has determined to review the administrative law judge’s determination of no violation in its entirety,” the agency posted in a notice on its website.

Two of Samsung’s patents cover data transmission technology, the third detects phone numbers in an email or Web page and another is a patent technology that moves the document display page with the user’s finger.

The commission also plans to discuss issues related to standards-essential patents, including whether securing a patent under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing precludes a ban on a product if it infringes the patent.

Both Samsung and Apple are required to submit answers to the ITC’s 13 questions, involving the interpretation of patent rights, infringement claims and on FRAND, to the commission next month. The final ruling is scheduled to be released on Jan. 14 next year.

With Samsung welcoming the ITC’s decision, local patent specialists said the ITC’s “unprecedented” determination to review the case was a positive sign for the Korean IT behemoth.

“The fact that the U.S. trade agency has decided to review the case all over again indicates that a serious error has been detected in its initial determination,” said Kang Min-soo, a patent attorney based in Seoul.

Kwon Doo-sang, another Seoul-based patent attorney, agreed that it was rare for the ITC to reconsider its initial ruling, stating that the issue of U.S. protectionism involving the Samsung-Apple case is likely to have impacted the decision.

“Currently, the situation is not looking so rosy for Apple excluding the U.S. market in terms of global patent litigation with the already announced jury verdict (in San Jose),” he said. “It seems like the ITC came to a conclusion that Apple may be negatively impacted if the ITC gives the same ruling as its initial determination.”

In August, Apple won a $1 billion jury verdict against Samsung in San Jose, California.

ITC’s final ruling is expected to gain utmost importance since the organization can ban imports of patent-infringing products into the U.S., which is one of the world’s biggest consumer markets.

An increasing number of firms, such as Samsung, Apple and HTC, have been litigating patents before the ITC as most cases ― so-called investigations ― are decided within two years, offering swift resolution for patent disputes.

Decisions reached by the ITC are often considered to be more reasonable because the ITC decision-makers such as the administrative law judge and the commission must provide a more detailed technical justification for their decision than a jury.

The commission is also required to examine public interest factors ― whether exclusion of the allegedly infringing products will have an adverse effect on public welfare or competitiveness in the U.S. economy.

The ITC’s final determination then undergoes a presidential review.

Meanwhile, the next steps of another patent infringement claim raised by Apple to the ITC will be announced on Jan. 9. ITC Judge Thomas Pender said on Oct. 24 that Samsung had violated four Apple patents, including one for the design of the iPhone.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)