Samsung targets iPhone 4S sales ban in France, Italy

Reuters ^ | 10/05/11

[TigerLikesRooster]

Samsung targets iPhone 4S sales ban in France, Italy

9:29am EDT

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics said it will file patent-infringement claims in France and Italy to ban the sale of Apple's new iPhone less than a day after it was unveiled, intensifying a legal battle between the two top brands.

It will also file legal cases in other countries to stop the sale of the iPhone 4S after further review, the South Korean maker of Galaxy smartphones and tablets said in a statement.

Samsung has emerged as a credible challenger to Apple's mobile devices and the two companies are battling over patents in courtrooms around the world. They have sued each other in 10 countries involving more than 20 cases since April.

The latest salvo from Samsung comes hours after Apple's newest iPhone launch left investors and Apple fans wishing for more than a souped-up version of its previous device introduced more than a year ago. Apple shares fell as much as 5 percent before recovering to close down 0.6 percent on Tuesday.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Samsung can be pretty vicious in this kind of fight. If Samsung loses the legal fight despite their efforts, lots of heads will roll at Samsung.

[Hodar]

Samsung accused Apple of not paying licensing fees for some of its patents before it started selling iPhones in 2007. Apple argues Samsung never demanded a license fee until 2010 and before that Samsung remained silent because Apple is an important customer

I can't speak for international patent law; but my understanding of patent law within the US is that you MUST defend your patent against anyone, consistently. You may not arbitrarily allow some companies to use your patent without license, while demanding license from others; lest your patent become part of the public domain. I believe this is what Apple is going to assert; that the patent is invalid in that it is public domain and that the patent is 'obvious' and a part of the common wireless phone communications standards.

[Erik Latranyi]

It seems like Samsung has worked things out with everyone else EXCEPT Apple.

[Hodar]

Samsung basically got called on for stealing ideas and concepts that Apple developed and has been using for years. Apple simply called them on this intellectual theft, from the user interface, to how they packaged their product, to the layout and form of the produts - Samsung copied Apple without even attempting to hide it. This is merely an obvious example of a flagarant power adapter product that Apple has been making for years, that Sumsung has stolen and is currently shipping with Samsung products. If you had a unique product built by Samsung, would you stay with them?

Apple sued and won injunctions in Austrailia and Germany on the Samsung Galaxy; now Samsung is going to attempt to hit back. The problem is that this is a battle Samsung cannot win. Samsung is losing Apple business for their memory, display and various other chipsets - and Apple represents a huge business segment; in short this represents billions of dollars that are going to go to Samsung competitors.