Earlier this week, Samsung made a somewhat surprising announcement that it will stop its legal actions against Apple in European countries including Germany UK, France, Italy and the Netherlands, which were all based on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) patents.
Truth be told, Samsung was not able to obtain any consistent victory against Apple with the 3G patents used to attack the iPhone maker in Europe. In fact, the most resounding Samsung victory over Apple in the region was obtained on the defense in the UK battle, where a court decided that the Galaxy Tab did not infringe on any Apple patents and that the American company had to post apologies in local papers and online.
Moreover, considering that these European lawsuits against Apple convinced the European union to look into Samsung’s FRAND-related lawsuit practices must have surely contributed to Samsung’s decision to drop the Apple trials.
However, despite doing so, the EU is not happy with Samsung, and the South Korean giant still faces an EU antitrust complaint, according to :
“We will adopt the statement of objections very soon,” Joaquin Almunia, the bloc’s antitrust chief, said at a press conference in Brussels today. He said the formal notice listing antitrust concerns could be sent as soon as the end of the year. The EU is probing whether Samsung violated agreements to license key patents to other mobile-phone manufacturers on fair terms. […]
“We are dissatisfied every time that we see the launching of injunctions” involving standard-essential patents,” Almunia told reporters at a press conference in Brussels. “The injunctions in the Apple-Samsung case were launched; it was not only a threat.”
We have no idea what this EU invastigation entails, but we’re certainly going to keep tabs on the whole matter, especially since Google’s Motorola will have to face a similar complaint.
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