So you know the courts have been going on it for years, and even though Apple refused to settle a payment, then refused to pay licencing, so the ITC ruled to outright ban the shipment and sale of the older Apple devices in the USA and world.
But then the trade office said it would harm the economy. Keep in mind, these are the iphone 3G, 3gs, and 4, and the original iPad and iPad 2... so it's not even new devices, and would only harm sales in -other- countries where they're still being sold commercially, like China, seeing as the only one of these devices really still for sale in the USA by a retailer is the 4. But we veto'd it anyhow.
This comes just about a week before there is a another court ruling on older Samsung devices.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23566422
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23578078
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/08/03/president-obama-vetoes-samsung-ban-on-apple-inc-iphones-ipads
Apple gave this comment; "we applaud the Administration for standing up for innovation in this landmark case" and adding that Samsung was "wrong to abuse [the] patent system this way."
This coming just months after Apple forced a ban of older HTC devices over the sue of radios, and a year after Apple banned the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 over the design of the box it shipped in. And during various patent based suits based on everything from a 'bounce back' animation that can be coded in less than twenty characters in a java based GUI (like Android), to a rectangle with rounded corners.
Oh, and as a lol, here's the comment apple gave when they succeeded int he HTC ban; "We think competition is healthy but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."