Samsung offers halt on patent litigation
Samsung has offered to stop taking rivals to court for five years over suspected infringements of standard-essential patents (SEPs).
The Korean-based smartphone maker has said it will make a commitment not to pursue SEP-based injunctions relating to its smartphones and tablet computers throughout the European Union (EU).
SEPs, which are inventions recognised as being critical to implementing an industry standard technology, must be shared on reasonable terms.
The Korean-based company has come under fire in the EU and was accused of stifling competition by bringing a series of SEP lawsuits against Apple and other rivals.
A European Commission (EC) investigation launched in January 2012 found Samsung could have breached Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, which prohibits abuse of a dominant position.
If found guilty the company is facing a $18.3bn (£11.3bn) fine.
Samsung’s proposals, which were published on the EC website on October 17, says it commits not to file injunctions before any court or tribunal, provided that a defendant who doesn't want to be the target of an injunction "agrees to a particular licensing framework".
The EC is now seeking comments from interested parties, including rival smartphone makers, on the proposals.
Joaquín Almunia, vice president of the EC, said he was looking forward to receiving feedback.
Almunia said enforcing patents through injunctions can be legitimate but that abuses must be prevented when a patent is an SEP, so that standard-setting works properly and consumers do not have to suffer negative consequences from “patent wars”.
“If we reach a good solution in this case, it will bring clarity to the industry,” Almunia added.
“Precedent shows that almost all companies that have received statements of objections from the EC have in the past reacted by offering commitments to remedy the accused behaviour,” said Hosea Haag, attorney at Ampersand in Munich.
“I am not aware of any case in which a company has successfully defended itself, when a statement of objections was already issued."
Gino Van Roeyen, attorney at Banning Advocaten, in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, told WIPR the move by Samsung had come as “quite a surprise”.
“Samsung has obviously found a way of trying to avoid some of the heat from the EU. The proposal has to be a method of trying to avoid the fine and Samsung has obviously thought it needs to do some damage control otherwise it could prove very costly.
“It could be a good tactic by saying lets go for it and stop these patent wars, but any developments largely depend on the position that other side is going to take. I anticipate there is still a lot of work to be done before all parties can come to a settlement.
"Samsung may say that it will not fight over its SEP' in court, but is that a way to prevent the fines?"
“Other companies will wait for the outcome of the proceedings before they follow Samsung’s approach but will for the time being be more careful with requests for injunctions based on SEP,” Haag added.
Parties interested in the proposals have been given a month to comment.
