Samsung drops European injunctions against Apple

Posted by John Kilhefner Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Corporate News

Samsung announced its intentions to drop its injunction requests against Apple. The injunction was for "standards-essential patent infringement" in Europe.

Here's what Samsung had to say:

"Samsung remains committed to licensing our technologies on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, and we strongly believe it is better when companies compete fairly in the marketplace, rather than in court. 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."

This, however, has no effect on the litigation still underway in the US. Meanwhile, the European Commission is investigating Samsung on whether or not it broke EU antitrust laws by licensing standards-essential patents, as well as facing investigation in Korea for an Apple complaint accusing Samsung of abusing wireless patents.

Back in January, the European Commission said it would investigate whether or not Samsung had broken EU antitrust laws in relation the licensing of standards-essential patents. Under EU law, companies must license such patents on a fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) basis. Samsung is also being investigated in its native Korea after Apple complained it was abusing its wireless patents. It's not clear if today's announcement signifies an agreement between the two companies or if Samsung was simply backed into a corner. The news does not relate to the US, where litigation continues.

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