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 Patent News |
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| Subject : Samsung and Apple clash in court over patent war |
| Date |
2011-07-29 |
Visit |
3515 |
Samsung Electronics and Apple held their first meeting in court in their smartphone patent war. The events of the day involved coordinating the trial schedule, but the two sides traded fierce attacks in an indication of their clear difference in views.
Courtroom No. 367 at the Seoul Central District Court was packed at around 10 a.m. Friday. Representing the two companies in the suit, the law firms Kim & Chang and Lee & Ko each had four to five attorneys in attendance.
The faceoff was tense from the start. Samsung Electronics argued, “Four of the patents we hold are for reducing power consumption and increasing transmission efficiency, and these represent the technical standard for high speed uplink packet access (HSUPA), which is the standard for third-generation mobile communications.”
“Because the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 use HSUPA, this can only be viewed as infringement of a Samsung Electronics patent,” the company said.
An image of the Apple web site and an iPad box were presented as evidence.
Apple countered, “Technical standards are created through the assembling of thousands of types of technology, including essential and optional areas, and one cannot claim a patent on the entire technical standard simply because one holds a few corresponding patents.”
“Since the technical standard presented by Samsung Electronics was adopted in 2003, we need to verify whether it is still the standard now,” Apple added.
The Apple position is that there is no problem even if the patent in question represents the technical standard.
“When the technical standard was adopted, Samsung agreed to share it so that other companies could use the patents in question,” Apple argued. “It cannot issue a patent-related prohibition order in such cases, so there is no case for damages.”
Samsung Electronics responded by saying, “Sharing is recognized, but this does not mean that companies that do not even request a license can use it without permission.”
While the court ordered the two sides to disclose specifics about their technology Friday, both exhibited caution out of concern about the potential leaking of core smartphone technology. Samsung Electronics demanded proof from Apple that no patent infringement took place, but Apple countered that the “burden of proof lies with Samsung.”
Samsung Electronics also criticized what it called Apple’s stalling tactics, referring to repeated postponements of the trial schedule.
Samsung’s counsel said, “We sent a 150-page accusation and an 80-plus-page brief, and all Apple sent was an eight-page response.”
“They have shown bad faith, for example by submitting documents late in countries like Japan and Korea while having swift trials in their own backyard in the United States,” they added.
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