Telecom Lead India: Apple and Samsung continue
fighting in regional courts to show their strength in respective markets.
However, the recent verdicts on Apple v/s Samsung give a clear indication that
the smartphone vendors have their voice heard better in their respective home
turfs.
The courts in the Asia Pacific region is relatively soft
on Samsung, as most of the cases filed in the region went in favor of the
Korean consumer electronics giant. On the other hand, courts in Europe and the
U.S have been harsh on the Korean company, and have given judgments that
imposed temporary sales ban in Europe and over $1 billion payment for damages to Apple in patents
violation by a U.S. jury.
On Friday, a Tokyo court ruled that Samsung’s smartphones
did not violate an Apple patent involved in synching mobile devices and
computers.
Telecom Lead does not to want to comment on the
disparity. We recommend for a strong global regulation to regulate patent
issues that affect billions of sales and efforts.
The devices industry cannot have different types of
rulings from several courts on similar issues. This is important for the
survival of the industry.
Wikipedia has given details of latest court rulings in the
fight between Apple and Samsung for gaining market share in smartphone and
tablet markets.
The Tokyo court judgment is noteworthy, given recent U.S court ruling, which said that Samsung did
infringe 6 patents of Apple. The U.S court has also ordered Samsung to pay damages
of more than $1 billion for patent violations to Apple.
Apple also seeks ban on the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy
smartphones and tablets in the U.S market.
Interestingly, before the U.S verdict, a South-Korean
court had ruled out that both Samsung and Apple infringed on each other’s
patents and banned devices from both companies in the country.
Both companies have locked horns over patent
infringements in several global markets.
Last year, Apple also won a case in Germany against the
Galaxy Tab 7.7 that imposed a ban on Samsung’s tablet sale in Europe. However,
the ban was lifted after a German court scaled back the ruling to within
national borders.
In February this year, the Dusseldorf ruled out that
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab tablet, in its 10.1N version, can be sold in Germany.
In Australia last year, Apple got success in temporarily
banning sales of Samsung galaxy 10.1 tablet. The ban was ultimately lifted in
December by an Australian court.
Presently, both companies are battling over
3G patents in Australia. Samsung claims that Apple has violated its
patents in iPhone and iPad devices. Being a semiconductor player, Samsung owns
several patents in 3G and 4G LTE technology.
Samsung holds just over 12 percent of the world’s LTE
patents and it is expected that Samsung could sue Apple if it ever
releases any devices with advanced long-term evolution (LTE) mobile
technology.
Baburajan K & Danish Khan
[email protected]
