Ondrej Holzman The heads of Apple and Samsung agreed to they will meet by February 19 at the latest, to discuss a possible out-of-court settlement to avoid another patent battle. Apple enters these negotiations with a clear condition - it wants a guarantee that Samsung will no longer copy its products. And if so, he could sue him again…
Tim Cook and his counterpart Oh-Hyun Kwon want to meet even before the second trial is set to start on March 31, which is supposed to dissect who infringed whose patents and who deserves compensation. So similar to the recently concluded case, from which Apple emerged as the clear winner, only with other devices and possibly patents.
Judge Lucy Kohová has already advised both parties to at least try to agree on some kind of out-of-court settlement. This means, for example, certain provision of their patent portfolios to the other party. However, Apple goes into these negotiations with a clear idea - if there is no guarantee in the agreement with Samsung that the South Korean company will not continue to copy its products, the signature of Tim Cook or his lawyers will probably never appear on the documents on the out-of-court settlement of the patent war.
It was this protection against copying that was a key point in the negotiations with HTC, with whom the Apple agreed to license patents. However, if HTC were to abuse this advantage and start copying Apple products, Apple could come with another lawsuit. And if Samsung does not agree to the same part of the agreement, apparently the negotiations cannot be successful.
Florian Mueller from Foss Patents writes, that both sides are likely more than willing to shift millions up or down in terms of royalties, but the anti-copying measure will ultimately be key. Samsung may not like this part of the agreement at all, at least it would in some way contradict Samsung's current strategy, thanks to which it has become the global leader in the field of smartphones.
But Apple has already clearly told the court that all the proposals it sent to Samsung contained limits both for the volume of licenses provided and for the possibilities of copying its products by Samsung. Conversely, Apple's lawyers rejected the South Koreans' claim that the latest offers did not include a guarantee against copying.
So Apple's message is as follows: We will definitely not let Samsung access our complete patent portfolio, and if they want to come to an agreement, they must stop copying our products. It is not yet clear whether Samsung will agree to such an agreement.
Great article, thanks for the info.
I wonder how it will turn out. Personally, I think that people no longer buy Samsungs because they are similar to iPhones - however, this is not entirely true anymore, and then most people have already understood that there is a difference between looking like an iPhone and acting like an iPhone. So Samsung can easily sign it (IMO), and Apple will save on lawyers (whose money could then be used to develop better batteries :) ).
Samsung won't agree to it because otherwise it would go to waste over time. He still copies, even if it is not so visible today. And they don't just copy in the field of mobile phones. Koreans have no respect for anyone or anything, and until someone gives them a good hand, they will bully everyone.