The Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL)-Samsung patent battle
has surfaced yet again. The latest allegation is that the Apple iPhone 5 is in
violation of 8 patents – 2 are standard patents and the rest are
feature-related, owned by Samsung.
The trial is a long way off in 2014. In the
meantime, it is doubtful if the allegation will affect sales of iPhone 5,
especially since Samsung has not approached the court for a pre-trial ban.
Chances don’t look too good for Samsung regarding the ban, because the 8
patents in question are the same ones for which Samsung has previously slapped
a lawsuit against prior versions of iPhones.
Apple received a favorable verdict last month
from U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). The company is temporarily
cleared of 4 patent violation allegations by Samsung related to wireless
technology. Current ruling is yet to be determined by a six-member ITC panel,
but normally, the full commission does not ignore the judge’s statements.
Apple won a trial against Samsung in August, an
event which was splashed in every medium. Samsung was found guilty by a
9-member jury of infringing 6 patents owned by Apple and the former’s counter
accusations were declared invalid. Apple received a damages amount of $1.05
from Samsung.
In recent times, few companies have shown a
growth rate like Apple be it their products, apps, iCloud, the new iPhone 5,
the new iPad, Apple TV, etc. They have built up a strong and solid customer
base over the years, which is why the revenue keeps increasing. However, its
rivalry with Samsung constantly leading to showdowns in courtrooms and immense
competition in the smartphone and tablet markets, are a huge obstacle for their
stock price to go up.
Samsung is a company of stupid decisions.
ReplyDelete1) they copy their main customer. The customer who gave them 8 billion dollars every year. The idea is to risk losing 8 billions to profit 2 billion dollars selling phones. (??)
2) when contacted by Apple, they prefer to litigate, risking full retaliation from their main customer.
3) on the court, they use lame arguments to try to convince the jury. Arguments like "we copied them but they copied sony first", that will just work on a kindergarden and "Apple copied the movie 2001 space odyssey".
4) they lose the court action and lose one more billion (!)
5) then then decide to sue using FRAND patents trying to ban Apple products, knowing (?) that FRAND patents cannot be used to ban anything, using the allegation that Apple violated their patents by using Qualcomm chips already licensed to use their patents.
The outcome of all this is:
1) they lose Apple as a customer and receive full retaliation from them
2) they have to pay 1 billion + court costs + Apple's legal team costs
3) they will have to change their products (thing that they should have done in the first place).