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Apple and Samsung Agree To Drop Cases Outside the US
mrspoonsi writes Apple and Samsung have agreed to withdraw all legal cases against each other outside the United States. The two rivals have sued each other over a range of patent disputes in nine countries outside the US, including the UK, South Korea, Japan and Germany. A joint statement said the agreement "does not involve any licensing arrangements", and they would continue to pursue existing cases in US courts. The two firms are the biggest players in the smartphone and tablet PC market. But they have been involved in a bitter legal battle, spread across various countries, which has escalated in recent years.
So, what is the reason for this? Is the risk that other courts will find the patents invalid and thereby making neither of them the winner too high?
Now they can announce the downsizing of their legal departments. Watch their stock prices climb...
Airlines do that all the time
And legal battles across international borders means international lawyers, which means more and more money. I'm surprised they didn't also keep up the fight in Korea, though - assuming they had any fights going on there at all.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
This agreement definitely favors Apple since the U.S. cases still proceed where Apple's has the advantage of strong support for their software patents as well as home court advantage. I can't help but wonder why Samsung would agree to this, especially the part about dropping the case in their home country.
Apple is rumoured to be introducing its iWatch later this year and Samsung has already released several models of smart watch over the last few months or so. I'm sure both parties will now be armed to the teeth with patents applicable to the other's watches, and the potential patent disputes between them likely more even sided than we've seen with phones and tablets. It makes very good sense for both parties to come to an agreement now so they can each concentrate on the coming shitstorm of fitness patents that will rear their head from all directions before long.
Would that not offer obvious evidence of collusion?
Only in the limited sense that two parties agreeing to an armistice are 'colluding'. Perhaps if they agreed to a delightful cross-licensing and then started suing every non-Samsuing android OEM into the ground; but if there isn't any licensing going on it's likely just a recognition that neither side has really gained much in the litigationdrome. Apple has won some; but not nearly the damages they wanted (and they've been more or less entirely unsuccessful in actually stopping Samsung from churning out and shipping large quantities of hardware), Samsung has at least blunted most of Apple's advances, possibly won some of its own suits; but kept all very large damage claims and attempts to ban devices that are commercially relevant away.
Without a clear legal edge for either side, they could keep slinging shit at each other; but it becomes an effort in throwing billable hours down the drain while other Android OEMs continue to put pressure on prices and Samsung's attempts to pull a 'fireOS'-style independence bid from being Google's pet board stuffer continue to mostly suck.
If Apple had actually managed to knock out a meaningful collection of Samsung devices or firmware features, or even just score some settlements of the size they wanted, they'd have much less incentive to stop; and if Samsung had managed to score a win or wins that conclusively got Apple off their back they wouldn't need an agreement; but neither party has. Apple likely has (between the number of patents and the number of venues for fighting about it) unlimited lawsuit fodder; but they haven't been able to make any of it hit has hard as they would like; while Samsung has been able to whittle down Apple's demands quite substantially; but has no chance in hell of getting a 'the court has proven that Apple needs to stop suing you now' decision.
Why only Apple and Samsung are fighting each other over patents? Why do they not come after LG, Motorola, Nokia, Microsoft, Sony etc?
So all of those cases in other countries that this article is about are just figments of our collective imaginations?