Samsung: Apple Patent Wars a 'Loss' for Industry, Innovation

News
By Zak Islam
published

Two technology giants have been locked in several lawsuits for years.

Samsung has emphasized that Apple's patent wars with the South Korean manufacturer is "a loss" for the industry and innovation.

David Eun, the executive vice president at Samsung’s Open Innovation Center, recently spoke about the company's relationship with Apple at the D:Dive Into Media 2013 conference. He stated that the legal battles with Apple have been "a loss" for both the industry and innovation as a whole.

The comments come after a report suggested that Apple CEO Tim Cook objected to launching a lawsuit against Samsung due to their business relationship, but was ultimately overruled by co-founder Steve Jobs.

Either way, Samsung has stated that it's willing to make peace with Apple, but "the ball's in their court." It also withdrew its ban request pertaining to Apple products in Europe in December 2012. It said that it made the decision in order to "protect consumer choice."

Following Apple's $1.05 billion lawsuit victory against Samsung in court back in August, the two have been locked in several court cases pertaining to said ruling. Ultimately, the judge denied Samsung a re-trial, but also rejected Apple's request to triple the former's damages as it was ruled that Samsung didn't willingly infringe on its competitor's patents.

Samsung and Apple will now meet in a forthcoming mega trial, which is scheduled to commence during March 2014.

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Zak Islam
18 Comments Comment from the forums
  • drbaltazar
    Samsung is right,on the long term it dum down the technologies world.everybody is like ,why bother we ll be sued anyway.check Kodak.they were weak financially and some wanted to sue Kodak to finish them off.
    Reply
  • sacre
    Both Samsung and Apple are failing to "Innovate". Apples innovation is a joke.

    The only phone I seen recently thats actually different and brings something new to the table is that concept that had the OLED screen wrap around the one side, thats new, thats cool.
    Reply
  • sliem
    War... war never changes.
    Reply
  • milktea
    The only way Apple could slow down Samsung is by lawsuit. Apple is just too slow, and be left in the dust by the market.
    Reply
  • edogawa
    RADIO_ACTIVEWait till North Korea nukes the south.... then Apple will have won the "war" lol /jk
    Not really funny, to be honest.

    Samsung is correct too, Apple needs to go away, permanently, they are crazy.
    Reply
  • lifelesspoet
    If you want to read a lot of apple articles on tom's, he linked himself 7 times.
    Reply
  • bllue
    Apple has set us back in terms of innovation. We could've been much farther
    Reply
  • ubercake
    The truth about apple setting things back is startups, small businesses and medium sized businesses have to spend their entire budget in litigation against apple lawyers even if they may have won the case.

    Apple is spending tons of cash on patents and protecting every common idea known to man.
    Reply
  • hausman
    (sorry if this ends up a double post... I don't see it):

    It's been said before, but the issue isn't so much Apple, but more with the US patent system at large. When they will issue a patent for practically anything, innovative or not, the recipient has the right to sue on its infringement.

    I don't agree with the system, or the heavy-handed legal pursuit of Apple or other already mega-rich corporations trying to force a monopoly and stifle creativity and competition. Something must change... something that will protect the inventor but not allow leverage for frivolous corporate lawsuits.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    edogawaSamsung is correct too, Apple needs to go away, permanently, they are crazy.The USPTO needs a major overhaul. The burden of proof to get patents approved should be much higher, ideally subject to review by qualified professionals in the specific or closely related innovation domain rather than common pencil pushers.

    This may increase the costs of filing patents by 10X but should reduce frivolous patents and related lawsuits along with drag on innovation by at least that much as well.

    With all the patent stupidity getting thrown around, companies wishing to bring new products to market will be wasting most of their efforts researching patents and ways to get around them than developing their new products, which is a shame and not what patents were supposed to be for when the very principle was invented.
    Reply