Samsung drops injunction applications against Apple in 5 European countries
Samsung announced on Tuesday it will drop patent injunction applications filed against Apple in five different European countries, though a number of lawsuits alleging patent infringement remain.
A senior executive with the South Korean electronics maker told The Wall Street Journal that injunction applications filed in the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands will all be pulled from court. The injunction cases were related to wireless telecommunications technology, but Samsung noted that lawsuits filed in Europe related to patent infringement remain active.
The withdrawn applications are a major shift in the war between Apple and Samsung, where court filings and disputes have piled up in dozens of countries around the world. Samsung's withdrawal of injunction applications was "unilateral and voluntary," and the company declined to say whether they came as a result of out-of-court talks with Apple.
"Samsung remains committed to licensing our technologies on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms, and we strongly believe it is better when companies compete fairly in the marketplace, rather than in court," the company said in a statement. "In this spirit, Samsung has decided to withdraw our injunction requests against Apple on the basis of our standard-essential patents pending in European courts, in the interest of protecting consumer choice."
Samsung's announcement comes quickly after Apple was denied a motion in the U.S. for permanent injunctions against Samsung devices found to have infringed on certain design and utility patents. Samsung, meanwhile, was also denied a motion from Judge Lucy Koh for retrial on the basis of alleged jury misconduct.
So far, Apple has had the most success in its patent infringement accusations against Samsung. Most significantly, Apple was awarded $1.05 billion by a jury in California.
In the U.K, Apple was forced to post a notice on its website declaring publicly that Samsung did not copy the design of the iPad. The court ordered Apple to post the statement after it lost a patent infringement complaint against Samsung.
A senior executive with the South Korean electronics maker told The Wall Street Journal that injunction applications filed in the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands will all be pulled from court. The injunction cases were related to wireless telecommunications technology, but Samsung noted that lawsuits filed in Europe related to patent infringement remain active.
The withdrawn applications are a major shift in the war between Apple and Samsung, where court filings and disputes have piled up in dozens of countries around the world. Samsung's withdrawal of injunction applications was "unilateral and voluntary," and the company declined to say whether they came as a result of out-of-court talks with Apple.
"Samsung remains committed to licensing our technologies on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms, and we strongly believe it is better when companies compete fairly in the marketplace, rather than in court," the company said in a statement. "In this spirit, Samsung has decided to withdraw our injunction requests against Apple on the basis of our standard-essential patents pending in European courts, in the interest of protecting consumer choice."
Samsung's announcement comes quickly after Apple was denied a motion in the U.S. for permanent injunctions against Samsung devices found to have infringed on certain design and utility patents. Samsung, meanwhile, was also denied a motion from Judge Lucy Koh for retrial on the basis of alleged jury misconduct.
So far, Apple has had the most success in its patent infringement accusations against Samsung. Most significantly, Apple was awarded $1.05 billion by a jury in California.
In the U.K, Apple was forced to post a notice on its website declaring publicly that Samsung did not copy the design of the iPad. The court ordered Apple to post the statement after it lost a patent infringement complaint against Samsung.
Comments
This ^^
Sounds far more likely, that and their Lawyers probably think that they wont win due to appearing to 'double dip' on licensing fees.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TBell
No this likely has to do with the EU investigating Samsung and Motorola's over their attempts to use FRAND patents to gain injunctions.
Yep. This is likely them trying avoid any further 'guilt' to pile onto the investigations, plus bad press. it is very easy to prove that Apple would be severely damaged by a loss of sales and if Samsung wins they can use the sales numbers to justify higher damages from the court (just as Apple would use the loss of sales to get treble awards etc if the injunction was granted). The courts are showing they aren't keen to give these injunctions anyway so why carry on and give more fuel to fires.
Maybe they realized that if they block the iPhone, they would have to start a whole new Galaxy marketing campaign? Ha
Now let's see what Google/Moto decides to do, though they will probably wait until the ruling on the MS/Moto case.
Samsung has decided to withdraw our injunction requests against Apple on the basis of our standard-essential patents pending in European courts, in the interest of protecting consumer choice.
What kind of bizarre spin is that? Defeat with honor? Retreating on the high road?
Translation: "Yeah, bad idea. No chance. We give up."
Apple legal team response: "And stay down."
Quote:
Originally Posted by charlituna
Yep. This is likely them trying avoid any further 'guilt' to pile onto the investigations, plus bad press. it is very easy to prove that Apple would be severely damaged by a loss of sales and if Samsung wins they can use the sales numbers to justify higher damages from the court (just as Apple would use the loss of sales to get treble awards etc if the injunction was granted). The courts are showing they aren't keen to give these injunctions anyway so why carry on and give more fuel to fires.
It is not just about Apple, Microsoft has put a lot of pressure on the EU to stop the enforcement of injunctions when FRAND patents are at issue. Samsung and Microsoft have managed to settle all their differences with Samsung taking a license. Microsoft is laying a beat down on Motorola though. Currently, Motorola can't sell any product in Germany, and Microsoft is beating up on it in the US as well.
Re: EU antitrust investigation: everyone mentions this one that started over ten months ago, but it has gone nowhere yet. There are rumors that there won't be a decision until next summer, if ever. So no one is paying attention to it right now.
In the meantime, there's already been at least one major EU SEP case that has come and gone, with the court deciding that Samsung couldn't use an injunction because it wasn't involved in good faith negotiations, while also deciding that Apple owed royalties. That decision was a reflection of the following:
Patent injunctions: The current prevalent world view seems to be that injunctions are allowed IF the patent holder has tried to negotiate in good faith, but a potential licensee has not.
A German court allowed Motorola to seek injunctive relief against Microsoft and the XBox 360. The judge said that FRAND is simply an offer to waive sole usage of a patent, and is an invitation to negotiations.
The European Commission has stated, "the seeking of enforcement of injunctions on the basis of SEP is also not, of itself, anti-competitive. In particular, and depending on the circumstances, it may be legitimate for the holder of SEP to seek an injunction against a potential licensee which is not willing to negotiate in good faith on FRAND terms."
On the other hand, a judge on the UK High Court ruled against an injunction, saying that the two companies should be able to come to a FRAND based agreement on their own.
An import injunction is a powerful weapon which the US ITC has used before. This has prompted the FTC to beg the ITC to reconsider allowing injunctions because of the disruption to major products. Some of us remember 2007 when the ITC stopped CDMA phones using Qualcomm chips from coming into the States. Verizon finally had to promise to pay the Broadcom royalty themselves to keep from running out of phones.
TL;DR - Patent holders maintain basic rights. The holder of a standards essential patent can ask for an injunction against a user of those patents, if the user never negotiated in good faith. Even so, they are often encouraged to work things out between themselves or seek non-judicial arbitration.