Samsung has recently filed as many as four different patent litigations against Apple in a district court situated in Hague, Netherlands asking the court to order a ban on the sales and a recall for all the products sold by Apple which incorporate 3G technologies. The first of the hearings for the cases has been scheduled for this Monday. The South Korean manufacturer has demanded a preliminary injunction against mobile products manufactured by Apple such as the iPhone and the iPad 2.
According to Samsung, all these gadgets infringe the company’s four essential 3G related patents. It is looking for a ban on the trading, sale and import of these devices in the country by Apple and five of its subsidiaries. In addition to this, Samsung has demanded that Apple recall all of its infringing devices which are in stock, those sold to the company’s professional customers, and also those in the inventory of electronic retail stores in the country such as Media Markt.
For every one of the different patent litigations Samsung is bringing up against Apple, it has filed a separate case. The patents are concerned with methods of data connection and transfer rate management between a mobile device, like a tablet or a smartphone, and a base station of the network. It has also been reported that Samsung is also considering invoking these patents in its other lawsuits against Apple in the UK, USA, Germany, France, South Korea and Japan. The concerned patents are considered to be standards essential, i.e. that they are included in the technology standards accepted throughout the world.
Analysts are of the opinion that the move can potentially backfire against Samsung, eventually turning into a liability, as however strong the company’s case might be, it will not be able to deny a license to Apple due to stipulation which binds all those who hold standards essential patents to provide all interested third parties with a license on fair and reasonable terms.
The lawyers from Apple have requested the court for another hearing for resolving issues with regard to these stipulations before any other technical or legal issue is considered. The request was granted by the district court judge, which means that the meeting which takes place will focus on these obligations of Samsung.
