Apple and Samsung call truce outside US

Smartphone rivals Apple and Samsung have settled all patent litigation outside the US, according to reports.

The companies have ended their patent battles in Australia, Japan, South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, France and Italy, the Financial Times reported today (August 6).

Litigation will continue in the US, where Apple has been largely successful in its cases against the South Korean technology company. Over the last three years, US courts have ordered Samsung to pay Apple millions of dollars in damages.

A joint statement quoted by the BBC said that today’s settlement “does not involve any licensing arrangements”. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The companies’ smartphone war started in 2011, when Apple sued Samsung in the US for “copying” the design of its iPad and iPhone products.

Samsung fought back, launching patent infringement suits against the iPhone maker in the US and other countries.

In a UK design infringement case, English High Court Justice Colin Birss ruled in 2012 that a number of Samsung’s Galaxy devices did not infringe a community design for the iPad because they weren’t as “cool”.

Elsewhere, in his Foss Patents blog, patent consultant Florian Müller noted that in Germany Samsung and Motorola have successfully invalidated every patent asserted by Apple, including any amendments it proposed.

Last year, the EU began an antitrust probe to determine whether Samsung was abusing its market power by seeking injunctions against Apple for using standard-essential patents related to mobile technology.

Neither Apple nor Samsung responded to WIPR’s requests for comment.