Samsung Bites Back, Plans to Sue Apple Over 4G LTE in iPhone 5
Turnabout is fair play, as they say; after suffering a terrible blow in court in its patent war against Apple, Samsung is fighting back. According to a report from the Korea Times, industry sources indicate that Samsung is planning to sue Apple over 4G LTE patents in its upcoming iPhone 5.
Although this news is a bit surprising because A) the iPhone 5 isn’t technically official yet (stay tuned for the big announcement on September 12th) and B) we therefore don’t know for certain that the new iPhone will indeed have 4G LTE technology on board, let’s just assume that both assumptions are true.
The Korea Times’ industry source said, “Apple claimed the existing 3G-related patents are standard essential patents (SEPs) according to our earlier commitment to the FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) terms. But the story is totally different when you talk about LTE patents. These are new and highly-valued.”
It’s not at all surprising that Samsung would counter-attack Apple; the latter is expecting over a billion bucks in reparations from the former after convincing a jury that Samsung wronged Apple, so this would be one potential way to recoup some of that loss.
In case you’re wondering if the patent wars were going to end anytime soon, here’s a spoiler: Nope.
Although this news is a bit surprising because A) the iPhone 5 isn’t technically official yet (stay tuned for the big announcement on September 12th) and B) we therefore don’t know for certain that the new iPhone will indeed have 4G LTE technology on board, let’s just assume that both assumptions are true.
The Korea Times’ industry source said, “Apple claimed the existing 3G-related patents are standard essential patents (SEPs) according to our earlier commitment to the FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) terms. But the story is totally different when you talk about LTE patents. These are new and highly-valued.”
It’s not at all surprising that Samsung would counter-attack Apple; the latter is expecting over a billion bucks in reparations from the former after convincing a jury that Samsung wronged Apple, so this would be one potential way to recoup some of that loss.
In case you’re wondering if the patent wars were going to end anytime soon, here’s a spoiler: Nope.
