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A renowned information industry expert says that Samsung and Apple will eventually cooperate through a comprehensive cross-licensing of patents.
``Both companies have many patents and other intellectual property rights. They can’t be in a continuous state of war for many years. There must be a peace treaty at some point,’’ said Florian Muller, a German-based legal expert who runs the popular FOSS Patents blog about software-patent disputes.
Muller expects there will be a deal between Samsung and Apple but, he added it’s difficult to predict when that will take place.
``Samsung is getting a lot of publicity in this dispute. It’s also an opportunity for Samsung to demonstrate that it can defend its rights aggressively. That may deter others from going after Samsung,’’ the German expert said in an email interview with The Korea Times, Monday.
Muller said Apple doesn’t assert any ``fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory’’ or FRAND patents against Samsung as he believes those that Apple is disputing are ones that Apple is free to use in any manner, including in exclusionary ways.
``That’s why the two companies' assertions aren’t comparable. However, people who are highly sympathetic to Samsung make the argument that Samsung shouldn’t have to give its own patents (FRAND or not) to Apple if Apple doesn’t do so either,’’ he said.
``It’s easier to develop an industry standard together with other players than to create powerful patents independently. If you develop an industry standard together with others, you’re basically part of a cartel rather than just an independent innovator.”
Samsung sources said that the Korean technology giant will try hard to win a better offer from Apple in using Samsung-patented mobile wireless-related technologies.
``If Samsung wins against Apple in a higher Dutch court, then we will receive reasonable royalties from Apple. We will do our best for this outcome,’’ a senior Samsung executive said.
In last week’s ruling from the Netherlands, the court said that since third-generation (3G) telecom technology was widely regarded as an industry standard, Samsung is obliged to ask for Apple licenses under FRAND terms.
The ruling also said that if Samsung Electronics makes Apple a fair and reasonable offer of a license fee and the firms still can’t reach agreement then the Korean firm could file a new patent dispute an injunction request.
``That means that because a court in the Netherlands unofficially accepts Samsung’s claim over the infringement of its patents by Apple, the situation could reverse in our favor in a higher court,’’ according to the Samsung executive.
Apple previously leaked ``classified information’’ indicating that Samsung was asking for 2.4 percent in royalties from each Apple device sold, which the Cupertino-based firm immediately refused as unfair, too much and discriminatory.
In the United States, a court in California said it still has to determine whether or not Apple’s design patents should be considered valid.
Judge Lucy Koh said that Samsung’s devices appear to infringe on Apple’s design patents, though she declined to issue an injunction on the Korean firm’s products.
Samsung officials said the understanding of FRAND terms is different from country to country without elaborating further.
``Apple is worried about Android in general and Samsung in particular. Android is a commoditization threat to Apple’s business; it makes widely available what Apple would like to keep exclusively for itself. Samsung builds high-quality hardware that can beat Apple’s products with the right software,’’ Muller said.
Meanwhile, Samsung Chief Executive Choi Gee-sung is sure of beating Apple.
``Apple is initially making penalty kicks based on its own logic and selection in terms of countries. But Samsung is positive it will block one or two of those penalty kicks out of the five,’’ Choi told reporters late last week.
``It’s a totally different matter. Samsung is handling the Apple case separately. That means the patent row has no link to our component business with Apple.’’
He said the company was threatened over its bottom line by Apple, which it sees as ``unacceptable’’ and ``intolerable.’’
The comment would be arguably the strongest against Apple since it sued Samsung in a U.S. court for the violation of its design-related patents in April.
Earlier this year, Apple accused Samsung of copying its iPhone and iPad designs to manufacture the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab. The fight has extended to nine countries.
Apple was granted a ban of the Galaxy Tab in Germany. A court in Australia also accepted Apple’s request to ban Samsung from selling the Galaxy Tab there.
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