Samsung Expected To Sue Apple Over iPhone 5 LTE Networking

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Geek.com: "The courtroom battle between Apple and Samsung seems to be far from over, and come tomorrow Apple is in for a major headache as soon as it makes the iPhone 5 official. That's because Samsung is poised to sue the company over patents it owns relating to LTE connectivity the new smartphone is expected to use. All Samsung needs to confirm is that the iPhone 5 is shipping with 4G LTE and it can then apparently set its lawyers into action. As is typical with these patent lawsuits, Samsung will most likely seek an import ban meaning the iPhone 5 may not be able to leave its manufacturing plants and make it to the U.S. to fulfill pre-orders. If such a thing ruling was made, Apple would most likely do a deal that meant it no longer pursued Samsung product bans, and might even forget about that billion dollar payout." Samsung's not the only one hoping to gain some leverage: itwbennett writes, "Apple's iPhone 5 and iPad 3 may violate a pair of patents bought by HTC back in April 2011 that cover methods used in 4G devices for faster downloads. International Trade Commission judge Thomas Pender said it would take 'clear and convincing' evidence to renounce the U.S. patents."

Comments

ABM Treaty for Tim Cook

[Spy Handler]

now that Steve Jobs is dead, there is no reason to continue his personal thermonuclear war. Tim Cook should get together with Samsung, Google, HTC et al and sign the equivalent of ABM treaty and cross-license all patents like all normal industries.

Re:ABM Treaty for Tim Cook

[UnknowingFool]

Without iPhone/iPad, Apple would still makes lots of money. Apple would make an estimated $30B in revenue instead of $140B (based on Q3 estimates). Profit margin might be in the 30% range instead of the 40% though.

Re:ABM Treaty for Tim Cook

[DickBreath]

Good luck trying to get an ABM treaty after you've just fired a bunch of nuclear weapons and some of them have even exploded.

For a long time there was uneasy peace. Nobody was stupid enough to pull the trigger on a full scale patent war. Not even Microsoft. Even dancing monkey boy was willing to merely extort money.

For mutually assured destruction (MAD) to work, all players have to be rational and sane.

Enter Apple.

By Steve Jobs own words, and Apple's continued actions, this won't end until Apple is pounded into the ground and nothing but dust is left.

I for one will be laughing myself silly once a patent nuclear weapon lands in Apple's back yard. And it will happen. Then we will hear a chorus of whining like nothing ever heard before from the fanboy reality distortion field cult.

The good thing that will come of it will be to draw attention to the broken patent system and how it is seemingly designed for abuse.

The only winners here

[ackthpt]

The only winners here are the law firms. The customers suffer limited feature availibility rather than a enjoy a robust market of the best each manufacturer can produce. It's a pretty rotten system. "You can only buy what our lawyers and patent portfolio will allow you to from out competitors" Really makes the patent system look like a tool of would-be monopolists.

Re:By all means, bring on the lawsuits. More, more

[gstoddart]

As soon as 1 congressman's iPhone 5 pre-order isn't fulfilled, I guarantee you they'll do something about it.

But I doubt it will take the form of fixing the patent system.

Likely just calling in favors to be sure he gets his phone first.

Re:This is not possible

[Zironic]

As far as I can tell, LTE patents were never made FRAND, and it's unlikely that the telecommunications industry will do FRAND again. Apple pissed in the FRAND pool and now noone is interested in being friendly anymore.

Re:OMG!

[Sydin]

Why didn't these two companies realize this and come to some kind of truce before it ever got to court?

Because Apple made the stupid move of suing Samsung in the first place. The telecommunications and technology companies were previously in a sort of Mutually Assured Destruction scenario: where everybody held patents that they could sue almost any other company for, but they kept quiet so long as those other companies didn't sue in turn. It wasn't a good system by any means, but it more or less worked. Apple suing Samsung was the equivalent of throwing MAD out the window and jamming their finger on the big red button, and praying everybody is dead before they get a chance to fire back. Surprise surprise: Samsung is still alive, they also have a big red button, and they're pissed.

Re:Fuck it.

[Lunix Nutcase]

No, there are no mobile phone companies that don't hold patents and use them either as weapons or as barriers to entry for potentially new competitors, This is why it's silly when people take sides in these fights since neither side is some angelic cmoany. Fanboism overrides logic every time.

Re:Yay!!!

[Joce640k]

Those who live by the patent, die by the patent.

Re:Lawsuit will fail...again

[robmv]

Like the MPEG licenses that allow someone to manufacture a camera that compress to MPEG-4 but if you stream that contents you have to pay again? or force the manufacturer to add a message that the video could not be used for commercial purposes, go check your camera annexed documents http://www.freshdv.com/2010/05/mpegla-licensing-nightmare.html

After seeing the MPEG licenses I believe everything is possible

Re:OMG!

[DickBreath]

You're seeing the little picture. Step back and see the big picture.

This is not and never was about any particular issue that Apple is suing anyone over in any particular court.

The recent Samsung case is not about Trade Dress (eg, Rounded Corner rectangles, etc). Other Apple lawsuits are not about the specific claims Apple is complaining about (eg, bouncy scrolling, pinch to zoom, searching more than one database at a time, etc).

For example, Samsung specifically designed a phone (Galaxy S 3) to avoid any kind of trade dress lawsuit. So what did Apple do? Sue over some other equally trivial issue.

What this is really about is that Apple doesn't want any competition. Apple feels like the entire Smartphone industry is God's Exclusive Gift to Apple by Divine Right. Apple should never have to license others' patents, even at standard rates, because Apple is special. Never mind that others have been in the business for decades. Apple should have it all now because Apple wants it all.

This is not your dad's Apple Computer anymore. This is a monopolist wannabe monster that is as bad or worse than Microsoft ever was.

I wouldn't care if Apple just wanted to have their walled garden, sell lots of toys, make boatloads (and more boatloads) of money, and leave me alone. But no, Apple wants to force me to buy their product and only their product. I can't have one of the over 4,000 Android devices that come in every size, shape, color, style and price from lots of manufacturers and on ever mobile network. So now that Apple wants to affect me, I suddenly care passionately, just like I did once with Microsoft.

How much is enough Apple? What do you want? Blood? Would that satisfy you? Aren't you successful enough to just leave everyone else alone?