Samsung has announced it will drop its injunction requests against Apple for standards-essential patent infringement in Germany, the UK, France, Italy and the Netherlands.
In a statement given to The Verge, the manufacturer said:
“Samsung remains committed to licensing our technologies on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, and we strongly believe it is better when companies compete fairly in the marketplace, rather than in court. In this spirit, Samsung has decided to withdraw our injunction requests against Apple on the basis of our standard essential patents pending in European courts, in the interest of protecting consumer choice.”
The European Commission said back in January that it would conduct an investigation into the question of whether or not Samsung had broken EU antitrust laws in relation the licensing of standards-essential patents. EU law says that companies must license such patents on a fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) basis.
It’s wasn’t clear if today’s announcement is an indication of an agreement between the two parties or if Samsung was just backed into a corner. The news does not relate to the US, where other cases continue.
