In a summary judgment order entered late on Tuesday (January 21, 2014), Judge Lucy Koh, the federal judge presiding over two Apple v. Samsung patent cases in the Northern District of California, found Samsung’s Android-based devices to infringe an Apple patent on word recommendations (autocomplete) and declared a Samsung patent on multimedia synchronization invalid.

This spells trouble for Samsung.

Prior to this ruling, Apple and Samsung were asserting five patents each in this two-way patent spat that started in 2012, roughly a year after the worldwide dispute between the two market leaders broke out in the same district (it subsequently turned out into a global battle with filings in ten or more countries). After the summary judgment decision, Apple still has five patents in play, one of which has just been found infringed (leaving to the jury only Samsung’s invalidity defense), while Samsung is down to four patents.

The trial begins on March 31.