Samsung will be seeking compensation from Apple after the company won a “symbolic” 3G patent suit in the Hague District Court in the Netherlands.
Apple was found by the court to be infringing on European Patent 1188269, entitled “Apparatus for Encoding a Transport Format Combination Indicator for a Communication System,” The Verge reported on Wednesday. The patent in question is a FRAND patent, meaning it must be licensed under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, which means Samsung cannot seek a ban on sales or import of Apple’s devices.
The Apple devices found to have infringed on Samsung’s 3G patent are the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, first-generation iPad, and iPad 2.
Samsung stated that the company will “recover adequate damages” from Apple in accordance with the court’s rulings. It said the decision verifies “that Apple makes free use of our technological innovations.”
A judge in the Netherlands last year denied Samsung’s request to halt sales of the iPhone and iPad. That decision was also based on the Samsung owned 3G patents.
One of the few legal victories Samsung has seen on its ongoing patent battles with Apple, this means Samsung can now collect damages from Apple.
Intellectual property expert Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents said on Wednesday that Samsung’s victory is only a “consolation prize” that only amounts to a “symbolic” victory for the company.
“Tiny amounts of money won’t get Apple to settle,” said Mueller. “Samsung was trying hard to win an injunction, but failed. From a strategic point of view, it had already lost 99.9% of these cases even before today’s liability ruling came down. This really is nothing more than symbolic.”
