Samsung Drops European Injunction Requests Against Apple 71
An anonymous reader writes with this IDG News report:
"Samsung dropped all claims pending in European courts in which it asserted patents that are essential for mobile communication devices to prevent the sales of Apple products in Europe. The injunction requests against Apple, which aimed to get courts to impose sales bans on infringing products, were withdrawn in the U.K., France, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. Samsung only withdrew the injunctions requests — other litigation against Apple in Europe continues, Anne ter Braak, a spokeswoman for Samsung in the Netherlands, said in an email on Tuesday. While Samsung said it withdrew its claims in the interest of protecting consumer choice, it could have to do with a European antitrust investigation."
Perhaps legal costs are starting to bite (Score:5, Interesting)
You have to think, with the relative lack of victory by any of the phone makers (Apple, Samsung, Motorola, Google) in the court of law, that at some point the legal bill would come due and companies would start coming to their senses about fighting in the courts vs. the market.
Samsung is already doing really well in the market as it is, so why should they bother to try and limit what other devices companies can sell? The same thing goes for Apple.
With any luck in 2013 we'll see all of the lawsuits subside as sanity takes hold.
Re:Perhaps legal costs are starting to bite (Score:4, Interesting)
Given that Samsung asked for this injunction after Apple tried for a similar injunction in the USA (which, conveniently enough, was just denied), I would expect that this was just a tit-for-tat maneuver to convince Apple that the stakes were getting a bit high.
So now that Apple no longer has the injunction option in the USA, dropping the European one by Samsung just makes sense.
Re:Who cares (Score:2, Interesting)
Yeah. I really don't understand why people come to the defence of Samsung so quickly. They are NOT a nice company.
The SK govt is practically a subsidiary of Samsung. They're untouchable there. They get away with this right now because the times are good for Samsung. I'd be quite worried if the company ever starts to falter.