After settling the patent lawsuit dispute with Nokia out of court, it is reported that Apple may pursue a similar out of court settlement with Samsung as well after the judge on the case said that it would be better if they could work on an out of court settlement. Apple’s attorney further corroborated this story by revealing that executives in the highest echelons of both Apple and Samsung had been discussing the possibility of such a settlement.
The possibility of reaching an out of court settlement is being considered as a major step forward in the patent dispute between Apple and Samsung because the dispute had earlier turned into something resembling a boxing match with both the companies requesting court orders to be allowed to see the other company’s soon-to-be-released tablet devices and phones so as to determine whether their technologies were copied. This came after a lot of allegations on Samsung and Apple pursuing such unfair strategies. In fact, the court had already ordered Samsung to hand over its devices to Apple after Apple’s initial lawsuit against Samsung.
Apple initially filed a motion in court against Samsung accusing the technology giant of copying their device’s design features in its Galaxy S phone and asked them to hand over pre-production samples of the Droid Charge, Galaxy S II, Galaxy Tab 10.1, Infuse 4G and Galaxy Tab 8.9. Samsung filed a similar motion against Apple in late May asking for the final versions of iPhone 5 and iPad 3 so that they could determine if their own devices had any more of the features that Apple is accusing them of having copied in order to avoid similar lawsuits in the future. The dispute has continued ever since.
Suspicions that an out of court settlement might be on the way had been rising recently because Apple is Samsung’s second-largest customer with about $5.7 billion at stake as Apple alone accounts for 4% of Samsung’s revenue and so a quick settlement is being seen as the best way forward for both companies as well as being in both the companies’ interests.
With the ruling on the court case still pending and therefore the possibility of an out of court settlement definitely on the cards, it is already a matter of concern within the industry as to which company was likely to pay the royalties in this case. However, because of Apple’s dependence on Samsung and vice versa, it is expected that the companies might reach some sort of cross-licensing deal instead of the need for paying loyalties.
