Apple may have come out on top when a juryruled that dozens of Samsung phones infringed
on Apple patents and trade dress, but that
doesn’t mean Samsung and other Android OEMs
will simply let the new iPhone 5 hit the market
without a bit or resistance. There are at least a
dozen Android powered devices being prepped
to battle the iPhone 5 in the marketplace, but
HTC and Samsung may be holding trump cards
that could give them a legal edge to block the
iPhone 5 from ever hitting store shelves.
It turns out that the iPhone 5 will be using the
LTE radio standard for high-speed data transfer –
a standard based on hundreds of different
patents, some of which are held by HTC and
Samsung. According to an industry source,
“Samsung Electronics has decided to take
immediate legal action against the Cupertino-
based Apple. Countries in Europe and even the
United States ― Apple’s home-turf ― are our
primary targets.” Samsung has not taken any
legal action yet, but we expect a patent
infringement lawsuit to be filed in the following
weeks.
On the HTC side, the legal battle is already under
way. HTC has presented its patent claims before
a US International Trade Commission Judge. The
legal battle is still playing out, but Judge
Thomas Pender has let Apple know that “Clear
and convincing means something to me; I have
to be pretty darn certain a US patent is invalid,”
when Apple lawyers disputed the validity of
HTC’s LTE patents. HTC has been on the forefront
of LTE since it launched the HTC Thunderbolt on
Verizon’s LTE network in 2011 and has supplied
LTE-enabled devices for all major LTE networks
across the globe.
We doubt that the courts will move fast enough
to issue a preliminary injunction against Apple,
which would hinder the initial launch of the
iPhone 5, but it does look like Apple will be on
the defensive this time around. Apple has 434
LTE patents of its own, but all Samsung and HTC
need is for Apple to infringe on one of their
patents to justify a court ordered injunction
against the iPhone 5.
While many of you would be thrilled to see
Apple suffer at the hands of Samsung and HTC,
we hope the parties involved will use this as an
opportunity to settle their legal differences once
and for all and set up cross-licensing
agreements, so they can all compete with their
products rather than spend millions of dollars
on lawyers. We can all agree that the patent wars
within the mobile space have gotten completely
out of hand.
What do you think will happen if iPhone 5 sales
are banned from the US and Europe?
thanks for sharing.