At the end of last month, you may remember we brought you a notable report which highlighted that the European Commission was said to be on the back of Samsung, after the smartphone manufacturer was allegedly found to have cited ‘Standard-Essential’ patents during its various lawsuits against Apple in the EU.
Following the Korean tech giant pulling out of its litigation cases with the Californian company across Europe in mid-December, though, Apple is (perhaps unsurprisingly) now also looking for Samsung to drop its U.S litigation cases, too.
According to Apple’s new motion filing issued Wednesday:
Apple opposes Samsung’s Motion to Strike (filed December 28, 2012) on the following grounds:
“Samsung presents no proper basis for striking Apple’s Notice of New Facts. Samsung refers to the “alleged new facts” set out in the Notice, but never denies that these are indeed facts, nor that they are new. Because these are new facts, Apple could not have raised them during the earlier briefing to the Commission, and the Commission’s procedural order governing that briefing is thus inapposite.”
In response to the filing, Samsung has issued the following statement, notably swapping the term “standard-essential” for “declared-essential” patents. The company also noted that it deems Apple’s requests for it to drop its U.S litigation cases “equally as harmful to American consumers as [the company's] pursuit of injunctions on declared-essential patents in Europe was harmful to European consumers.”
Simply put, Samsung’s pursuit of exclusionary relief on declared-essential patents in this investigation is equally as harmful to American consumers as Samsung’s pursuit of injunctions on declared-essential patents in Europe was harmful to European consumers. Having withdrawn its injunction requests in Europe, Samsung should now withdraw its exclusion-order request here. If it does not, Apple respectfully submits that the Commission should give the new facts set out in Apple’s Notice due consideration as the Commission adjudicates the issues under review and the public interest.
AppleInsider adds to the original report, highlighting that Samsung really had “no choice” but to go down the route it did with Apple in the U.S and Europe, as the Cupertino company was reportedly “unwilling” to negotiate on the licensing of its patents under what the report refers to as “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.”
You can read Apple’s new motion filing (in full) – right here.
/ Image Credit: Gizmaestro
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