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Ericsson Seeks US Import Ban On Samsung Products
angry tapir writes "Just a few days after Ericsson filed several patent-infringement lawsuits against Samsung in the U.S., the Swedish mobile phone company also filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), asking for an import ban of a wide range of Samsung products, including the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note. Ericsson alleges that Samsung violates Section 337 of the Tariff Act by importing patent-infringing products into the U.S and selling them."
... but two questionable claims still don't make a right one. Try again, Ericsson.
I believe Ericsson was a quite popular brand of phone in the dumbphone era, but their reputation has since died off.
Are companies that are unwilling to compete simply going to sue their competitors? Instead of devoting their resources to innovating, they're wasting their time and money on lawsuits while other companies are free to spend their time doing something interesting on their own.
Samsung sells a lot more than just phones, and I don't know if these companies are just trying to sue them into oblivion. If that is their plan, they obviously haven't planned it out very well.
How dare anyone out there sue Samsung, after all she's been through! She loves her Galaxy! She went through a lawsuit! She had many business partnerships, her customers turned out to be (sob) litigious and now she's going through an appeal.All you companies care about is patents and making money off of her! SHE'S A CORPORATION! What you don't realize is Samsung is making all this money and all you do is file a bunch of crap against her.
... is sucked up by lawyers and judicial staff by way of my handset manufacturer.
On any given day you can replace "handset manufacturer" with "OS vendor", "service provider", "app developer", etc.
This system stinks and it doesn't function in my interests as a consumer (or an engineer, for that matter).
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
world wide patent laws need to be reworked
For Samsung to be in violation of 337, there has to be patent infringement. Since a court has not ruled that Samsung is infringing upon Ericsson's patents, then Samsung is not infringing upon Ericsson's patents. At least not right now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_ericsson says that Sony bought the Ericsson part of Sony Ericsson this year, and is renaming the company Sony Mobile.
Thus there is no Ericsson mobile company. Could someone clarify which Ericsson they are referring to?
Well I just patented useing plumbing on computers and you must now pay me $5 for that post.
Yes that counts as plumbing on computers.
More innovation??? I can't stand it!
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
I never thought network operators would take sides, but this is a dumb move from their side siding with Apple as Samsung has a WAY bigger market in the rest of the world and strategically they just pissed off a lot of telco's who wanted to buy their equipment ....
We'll all be using cheap Chinise knock-offs in a few years anyway.
Erikson has a bunch of frand patents everyone licenses, including apple, moto etc... Samsung just said screw you making them the only manufacturer not paying for the Erikson patents. This gives them what could be considered an unfair advantage in the US market place. The ITC is supposed to take swift actions, this is not like the Apple Samsung case where apple is working with a bunch of new interface patents. This is more like refusing to pay MpegLA for h.264. I think we are seeing what a dirt bag company Samsung really is.
Samsung is kind of hard to compete with nowadays, they're like the Microsoft of the 90s
Samsung is nothing like Microsoft...In fact Microsoft is still Microsoft only in the phone world its FUD; Bully Tactics; Burning Partners have got it treated like a clown that gives you cancer by both carriers and customers
The sad thing in this market anyway they are closet to...what Nokia was and could have been, several fledging operating systems including the successer to Meego [Tizen]; its own [Bada] and even Windows...its just the Market wants Android.
If I was arguing beyond Phones I may even say Sony...but Microsoft never.
Wouldn't a US ban on Samsung products constitute a ban on... pretty much everything electronic? I doubt there's a single electrical device in your home that doesn't contain at least some Samsung components.
Perhaps Samsung should bypass all these attempts at import bans by doing the final assembly locally. The physical assembly can still be done wherever, but the potentially patent-infringing software can be loaded on in the destination country, so what is shipped overseas does not infringe on the patents.
Or even sell them with something other than Android on them, but with something simple that allows the carriers to update them upon activation. Then they aren't infringing on any software patents until after they are sold!
of interest though, apparently.
I'd just like to know how much of OUR money all this patent lawsuit bullshit is costing US. All of the cash samsung and ericsson has eventually came from us, so every time they piss money down the drain they'll just recuperate from us it by increasing prices.
And it's not like it's just smart phone consumers that will suffer, these large companies have lots of fingers in lots of pies so will no doubt bump the prices of things like memory chips earlier.
The only people that win patent lawsuits are the lawyers.
Ericsson is part of an alliance with Microsoft, Apple, and others who see Linux and Android as a threat to their business model.
http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/partners/ericsson.aspx#fbid=LZQES70oV98
http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/01/rim-apple-sony-microsoft-consortium-snags-nortel-wireless-pat/
The whole point to to keep the litigation going as long as possible.
Seriously, how else can a free market possibly be free if silly things like patents and copyrights get in the way. If people think you are worth the higher bucks, then higher bucks they will pay. This getting governments involved to enforce monopolies is totally gotten out of hand.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
Yep. Your head of the PTO was right, everyone is in envy of your world class patent system yeah right....
theres only one way its world class and it starts with f and ends in up.
Have just successfully argued that Samsung can't get an injunction against Microsoft products because blah blah financial remedy table pound, say, Your Honor, y'all hail from Seattle, right?
I wish Ericsson all that they deserve to get from lying down with rats.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Ericsson no longer makes phones. They're a highly profitable company building cell phone networks with lots of patents in the wireless tech-sphere. Samsung and Ericsson are not, in other words, direct competitors and this is not a case of competing through the courts. Key part from TFA:
"The suits were filed because Ericsson said it could not reach a license agreement for its patents with Samsung on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms after two years of negotiations. Samsung was asked to pay the same rate as its competitors, but Samsung refused, according to Ericsson.
"Samsung had licensed Ericsson patents before. However, according to a statement released by Samsung last week, Ericsson demanded 'significantly higher royalty rates for the same patent portfolio,' adding that it planned to 'take all necessary legal measures to protect against Ericsson's excessive claims.'"
This is purely about the money. The two companies stopped negotiating, Samsung is betting that going to court (they must have known a lawsuit was coming) will end up better for them than paying Ericsson's fee.
Apple is Evil.
Fiat Homos et Pereat Theos
Meanwhile, Nokia drops case vs Xtrauf, proud US makers of rubberboots.
Nokia: We found out their boots were actually made in China.
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/alaskans-say-xtratuf-boots-lost-trademark-durability-after-manufacturing-move-china
Nokia: while we haven't been in the rubberboot business for decades, we felt we needed to, just like Ericsson with phones, make our _former_ presence heard.
Q: What have the damages to you been from Xtraufs move to China?
Nokia: Why ask us? Ask that question to Sony who have NEVER been selling rubber boots.
Q: Huh?
Nokia: That's our point.
Your grammar broke my brain, and now it needs a reboot. Watch where you're flinging those capital letters and sentence fragments - you could hurt someone. You could hurt.... YOURSELF.
IF the patent is invalid, then there is no need to pay a license for it any more.
Just because you got gulled once doesn't mean you have to give in on the next blackmail demand.
The US has hundreds of ports of entry and most of them aren't secured in any meaningful way.
For the last 15 years or so it has been illegal to import unlicensed DVD players. Philips gets $5 for each player license. When you buy a DVD player that costs less than about $50 it is clearly unlicensed - there is no room in the pricing structure for Philips to get $5 from the manufacturer. So, what is the US doing about this? Well, it is illegal to import these things so there is a complete import ban on these devices.
You can go to Walmart and see how well that is working out.
Does Ericsson really believe an import ban is going to change sales in the US? I don't think it will matter to the retailers where the phones are sold and they will certainly continue to stream into the US. The US considers border control to be something for other countries to worry about. This is partly why the US is a prime destination for (a) illegal drugs, (b) sex trafficing, (c) counterfeit products, (d) banned weapons, (e) etc.
If you can easily bring 10 girls in for duty as prostitutes there should be no problem bringing in a few Samsung phones. And I am sure Samsung is counting on that.