Samsung Backs down In Apple Patent Cases - Forbes

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This isn’t something we’ve seen yet, one of the two backing down in the ongoing patent war between Apple and Samsung. But it does seem to be true, that Samsung has backed down in several European patent cases where it is suing Apple:

Samsung has stated that it will withdraw from its patent battles with Apple that cover infringement issues in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

Well, no, as they corrected themselves a little later, what actually happened was that Samsung is still suing but isn’t asking for product injunctions:

Samsung has withdrawn its request for injunctions to ban sales of Apple’s iDevices in six European countries.

As to the why:

Samsung has stopped seeking sales bans for Apple products such as the iPhone and iPad in lawsuits in five European countries, apparently after being warned by the European Commission against abusing its ownership of patents essential for standards such as 3G networking.

Which is where I think it all gets so interesting. We’re actually ending up with patent law becoming quite similar on both sides of the Atlantic. Despite very different legal systems and different ways of reaching those same positions.

The patents that Samsung is asserting against Apple are standards essential ones. You just cannot get 3G systems to work without them. Both the EU and the US legal systems seem to be insisting that you cannot use such standards essential patents to gain a sales injunction. Here in the EU that’s the EU Commission saying, in essence, “Don’t”. The US courts arrive at the same decision (and I suspect that the English courts would too, given that we have a very similar legal system to the US, and one very different from the rest of the EU) by a different route.

Given that these are standards essential patents then you (or Samsung in this case) have already agreed to license them on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. Because that’s what you do agree to when they become part of the standard. Which means that obviously simple cash is a remedy for someone breaching these patents: must be, you’ve already agreed that you’ll license them to anyone for cash. Thus you cannot have an injunction against the sale of the offending products: but you can ask for some money.

Which is, as I say, very similar to the EU outcome even if we’ve got there via a different route.