After winning a major legal battle against Samsung over patent violations in California last week, Apple has lost a patent lawsuit in Japan as a Tokyo judge ruled that Samsung’s smartphones and a tablet computer didn’t infringe on an Apple invention for synchronizing music and video data with servers, reports “Bloomberg” (http://macte.ch/Y3BNc).

Apple was ordered by Tokyo District Judge Tamotsu Shoji to pay costs of the lawsuit after his verdict, the article adds. The ruling involves a single patent; Apple is still pursuing other lawsuits in Japan.

This is all part of the ongoing, global legal battle. Apple and Samsung have filed more than 30 lawsuits against each other across four continents. For example, Apple alleges that Samsung copied the slide-to-unlock technology of its iPhone and iPad devices.