Samsung drops injunction requests against Apple in Europe
As the final rulings are reached in Apple’s case against Samsung in the US, the latter company is rethinking its litigation strategy in Europe. Today Samsung released a statement saying they would withdraw injunction requests against Apple in Europe. Samsung cites “protecting consumer choice” as a driving force behind the decision.
The real reason might go a bit deeper than simply “protecting consumer choice,” but Samsung is framing their decision so as to say “we’re taking the high road.” Perhaps it signals a shift in Samsung’s mentality towards reaching an out-of-court agreement (the company did, after all, say it was open to negotiating a settlement with Apple). Perhaps the Korean company is feeling the blows of one too many unfavorable court decisions.
The injunctions in question were based on Samsung’s standards-essential patents, which have proven tricky to litigate in the past. Currently, such patents are to be licensed under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. Groups including Apple and the European Commission have questioned in the past if Samsung has been abusing such patents.
A recent decision in a dispute between Motorola and Microsoft set a precedent to forego injunctions for standards-based patents in favor of FRAND-based fees. The complication in seeking an injunction on such patents arrises from their use of certain openly available standards, such as a video codec or wireless format. It was determined that given the availability of such technology to all, it could not be proven that infringement had caused irreparable harm.
[via The Verge]