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Samsung Drops European Injunction Requests Against Apple
An anonymous reader writes with this IDG News report:
"Samsung dropped all claims pending in European courts in which it asserted patents that are essential for mobile communication devices to prevent the sales of Apple products in Europe. The injunction requests against Apple, which aimed to get courts to impose sales bans on infringing products, were withdrawn in the U.K., France, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. Samsung only withdrew the injunctions requests — other litigation against Apple in Europe continues, Anne ter Braak, a spokeswoman for Samsung in the Netherlands, said in an email on Tuesday. While Samsung said it withdrew its claims in the interest of protecting consumer choice, it could have to do with a European antitrust investigation."
Why shall I care about these patent battles between companies which deserve to suffer, because they did nothing to stop patent law extention to software? May they all rott in hell.
You have to think, with the relative lack of victory by any of the phone makers (Apple, Samsung, Motorola, Google) in the court of law, that at some point the legal bill would come due and companies would start coming to their senses about fighting in the courts vs. the market.
Samsung is already doing really well in the market as it is, so why should they bother to try and limit what other devices companies can sell? The same thing goes for Apple.
With any luck in 2013 we'll see all of the lawsuits subside as sanity takes hold.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I assume they thought they'd lose or it would have rammifications on them and what they can charge others in the future. I'll be really surprised if they decided to be nice to Apple.
Maybe Apple and Samsung are realizing that nobody but the lawyers win when they put so much effort into suing each other. While Steve Jobs was mad at Google for producing Android behind his back while key members of Google sat on their board, maybe Apple is starting to realize that just like the Microsoft situation where almost the same thing happened with their Operating Systems that in order for Apple to win Google and others don't have to lose. It's should be about having the best product and nothing else. I hope that Apple will follow Samaung and drop their suits.
Sig: I stole this sig.
So now that Apple no longer has the injunction option in the USA, dropping the European one by Samsung just makes sense.
If they thought they could win, it makes little sense to drop the case now.
If they never thought they could win, it made little sense to go through the very considerable cost of initiating the lawsuits, just to "show Apple a thing or two" (tit for tat). Since it had no impact on Apple all it did is cost Samsung a lot of money! At the very least Samsung should have waited to see if Apple's suit would gain any traction at all, then start that as a counter-measure.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The real solution to this patent mess is to completely eliminate all patenting.
A second best solution would be a return to the original idea that patents are for very limited times and then move into the public domain. Adjusting for market lifespan changes that should be about two years.
A third best, and more likely scenario, is to put everything under FRAND like rules. All patents must be licensed to anyone in a fair manner after a period of two years from the original patent filing.
Let's stop enriching the lawyers and get back in the business of innovation and production of great products.
As bad as the patent nonsense is overall, at least they knew when to back down after Apple requests were turned down.
Apple, on the other hand, are probably going to be more pissed.
And that they are FRAND licenced, so they don't have a leg to stand on.
Oh and that they are under investigation in Korea for potentially abusing wireless Standards Essential Patents.
Plus the US Department of Justice is also looking at potential antitrust abuse by Samsung.
Not to mention that the FTC has made it clear that it won't tolerate the use of FRAND-encumbered Standards Essential Patents to block competitors in the US.
Nope, it was just about protecting "consumer choice" :)
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Another way of interpreting it: Samsung does not wish to be perceived as a greedy thug like Apple.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Obviously, someone at Samsung realized that the EU is likely to reform patents, and disallow all their patents as a result.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
(as did Microsoft) that in the end, they really need Apple to survive as a competitor in order to avoid all the anti-trust traps.
Over $1 billion.
That's a "relative lack of victory in the court of law"?
Yes, I think overall it is a loss. At this point Apple may well be approaching that figure on legal fees.
But in addition to pure monetary outlay, think of all the industry goodwill from customers and suppliers (like Samsung) this has cost them. That $1 billion does hardly anything to Samsung so as far as they are concerned they really did get away with a slap on the wrist relative to the success they have had.
It's not like Apple has any use for $1 billion more than they had; and it's going to take eons to pry it out of Samsung with the appeals alone.
Totally not worth it, even if Samsung did infringe to some degree.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I purchased an S3 clone a few weeks back direct from China - couldn't be happier with it, and several work colleagues have expressed interested in getting one too. For all I know the phone infringes on multiple patents - I don't know, nor do I care! While the 'brand name' companies squabble over patents, Chinese manufacturers are stealing their lunch.
Because Samsung isn't doing that to Apple.
There are two prices that are available to EVERYONE.
1) A rate that Apple are being asked for. Apple are refusing to pay that much "because our phones are more expensive".
2) A rate that is cheaper if you pool your patents. Apple refuse to pool patents.
So in this case there is nothing about Samsung extorting whatever fee they like from companies from patents covered by FRAND.
So what case are you talking about?
I see a lot of articles in the various "news press" that fail to do even the most rudimentary fact checking before reposting with their own take on this. Most post some variant of "Samsung drops pantet lawsuits in Europe". That is not what this is all about. They are dropping all their attempts to get injunctions based on standards essential patents in Europe. This is most likely because the EU is looking into the matter, and the EU can stomp a company pretty hard if they are found to violate competition rules.
Patent lawsuits are otherwise proceeding as normal. Those of us in the peanut gallery will be kept entertained for years to come, I am sure.
The licensing cost for these patents were based on the cost of the FINAL PRODUCT.
Since the chips were not the entire cost of the FINAL PRODUCT and could not be, the cost of licensing the patent enacted on those chips CANNOT be included in the price of the chip.
Your assertion is COMPLETEY AND UTTERLY FALSE.
And they would have to PAY MORE to continue the case, therefore dropping it now that the situation in the market wasn't going to be decided by whoever got the nicest judge, they could drop the case.
How many cases are plea bargained? How many extortion notices (for example, patent claims) are settled not because they were valid, but that defending against them costs more than the payback at the end?
Continuing to kick Apple when they were down and spend money on it for no gain would be cutting off their nose to spite their face.