Some have banned laptops and other devices entirely in an effort to get everyone to focus.

FORBES: Is This Meeting Necessary?

Britain recently banned exports of such devices and arrested a businessman who was selling them.

ECONOMIST: Anti-IED technologies

On the day that the jury in San Jose delivered its ruling, a court in South Korea hearing a similar case said both firms were guilty of patent violations against the other and banned some of their devices from sale in the country.

ECONOMIST: Apple v Samsung

While the latest ITC ruling noted that Apple's iPhone 3G model and several Blackberry devices had infringed the patent, the judge indicated this was not grounds for the devices to be banned from sale in the US, on the grounds that the innovation did not deserve its patent status.

BBC: Kodak suffers image preview patent ruling setback

In December America's International Trade Commission ruled that some HTC devices had infringed an Apple patent and should be banned from America from April 19th.

ECONOMIST: HTC

After years of criticism from human rights groups, countries like the UAE and Qatar have banned using small children as camel jockeys and are testing out interesting mechanized devices.

CNN: Facing up to terror in the Middle East