Just in time for the holidays, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co. may be reaching a truce of some sort in their global litigation over smartphone patents. A San Jose Calif. court ruled Dec. 17 that Apple had not proven its case requesting an injunction barring the sale of some of Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones and tablets in the US.
The iPhone maker had filed the request after a US jury ruled in August that Samsung had, in fact, copied patented features included in Apple’s mobile devices, awarding the San Cupertino, Calif. company $1.05 billion in damages. The two companies have engaged in bitter patent lawsuits in countries around the world for some time, starting in 2010 when Samsung released its first Galaxy smartphones.
In determining her ruling, federal judge Lucy Koh considered whether Apple’s business had been significantly harmed by Samsung’s infringement, and whether customers purchase Samsung’s devices specifically because they offer features patented by Apple.
“Though evidence that Samsung attempted to copy certain Apple features may offer some limited support for Apple’s theory, it does not establish that those features actually drove consumer demand,” Koh ruled.
“The [Samsung] phones at issue in this case contain a broad range of features, only a small fraction of which are covered by Apple’s patents,” she added. “Though Apple does have some interest in retaining certain features as exclusive to Apple, it does not follow that entire products must be forever banned from the market because they incorporate, among their myriad features, a few narrow protected functions.”
“The potential for future disruption to consumers would be significantly greater if this court were to issue an injunction, and such disruption cannot be justified,” Koh concluded.
Apple plans to ask the full appeals court to review the case. Before his 2011 death, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs vowed to wave “thermonuclear” war against companies running Google’s Android operating system for copying the iPhone. Samsung is one of those companies.
Koh also ruled against Samsung in its request for a retrial based on its claims the August verdict was altered by jury misconduct on the part of the foreman. Koh dismissed claims that the foreman was biased in favor of Apple.
Meanwhile, just hours after Koh’s ruling, Samsung announced Dec. 18 it would end its efforts to block sales of certain Apple devices in European nations.
“We strongly believe it is better when companies compete fairly in the marketplace, rather than in court,” Samsung said in its statement.
Samsung’s request for injunctions, however, triggered a European Union antitrust investigation that will not so easily go away. The examination into whether Apple or Samsung violated agreements to license standard-essential patents for other mobile-phone manufacturers on fair terms, will continue.
Samsung had claimed that Apple infringed its patents over standard-essential technology for wireless communications. In Europe these patents are selected as an industry standard and must be licensed on fair terms.
“Our investigation is ongoing,” European Commission spokesman Antoine Columbani said.
And so the saga continues. Maybe truce is strong word.
