Apple and Samsung Negotiating Agreement to Settle Patent Disputes Out of Court

Apple and Samsung may be close to reaching an agreement that would settle all patent infringement lawsuits out of court, claims Kim Yoo-chul of The Korea Times (Via Fortune). This account follows a previous report from late last week that Apple and Google/Motorola have reached an agreement to drop all ongoing litigation between the two companies.

apple_samsung_logos
Samsung and Apple are reportedly in the early stages of negotiation with some key details on royalty payments still under negotiation.

"Samsung has recently resumed working-level discussions with Apple and the key issue is how to dismiss all lawsuits," one source said, declining to be named.

[...]

"Some more time will be needed to fix terms of details such as royalty payments in return for using patents owned by each before reaching a full agreement."

Apple and Samsung recently faced off in a California court as part of the second US patent infringement lawsuit between the two companies. In the case that concluded earlier this month, the jury found that Samsung willfully infringed on three of the five Apple patents involved in the lawsuit and ordered the Korean company to pay Apple a sum of $119.6 million. Apple also was found guilty of infringing on one of Samsung's patents with damages totaling $158,400.

Popular Stories

Generic iOS 18

Apple Releases iOS 18.0.1 With Touch Screen Bug Fix and More

Thursday October 3, 2024 2:22 pm PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.0.1 and iPadOS 18.0.1, the first updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating systems that debuted earlier in September. iOS 18.0.1 and iPadOS 18.0.1 come two weeks after the launch of iOS 18. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. According to Apple's release notes, the...
ipad mini 2021 youtube

New Report Reveals When to Expect the iPad Mini 7

Tuesday October 1, 2024 2:09 pm PDT by
Apple is working on a new iPad mini that will "potentially" be released "by the end of 2024," according to a report today from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Last month, Gurman reported that Apple had "new iPads in the works," including an upgraded version of the iPad mini. At the time, he said the device was "on deck for Apple's October event" alongside the first M4 Macs. The wording in his...
macOS Sequoia Night Feature

Apple Releases macOS Sequoia 15.0.1 With Bug Fixes

Thursday October 3, 2024 2:27 pm PDT by
Apple today released macOS Sequoia 15.0.1, the first update for the macOS Sequoia operating system. The 15.0.1 update comes a week after Apple first released macOS Sequoia 15. Mac users can download the ‌macOS Sequoia‌ update by using the Software Update section of System Settings. According to Apple's release notes, macOS Sequoia 15.0.1 fixes a bug that could cause the Messages app...
15 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

15 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.1

Friday September 27, 2024 6:14 am PDT by
Apple is set to release iOS 18.1 in October, bringing the first set of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update marks a significant step forward in Apple's AI integration, offering a new Siri contextually-aware experience and a range of additional capabilities powered by on-device machine learning and large language models. There are a couple of handy new...
maxresdefault

Two Weeks With the iPhone 16 Pro Max

Friday October 4, 2024 12:04 pm PDT by
Now that it's been two weeks since the iPhone 16 models were released, we've been able to spend enough time with the new devices to share a more in-depth review on their performance, battery life, feature set, and more. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've been testing the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max, but the gap between the Pro models and the standard iPhone 16...
macOS Sequoia Feature

Here Are All the New Features Coming to macOS Sequoia This Month

Thursday October 3, 2024 6:27 am PDT by
‌Apple in October will release macOS Sequoia‌ 15.1, bringing to Macs the first Apple Intelligence features such as Writing Tools, new Siri features, Smart Replies, and more. In addition, macOS 15.1 adds a handful of welcome tweaks and improvements to existing Mac capabilities. Here's what we can expect from the first major update to macOS Sequoia later this month. Note that Apple...
apple silicon mac lineup wwdc 2022 feature purple

MacBook Pro, iMac, and Redesigned Mac Mini With M4 Chips on Track to Launch 'This Year'

Tuesday October 1, 2024 1:57 pm PDT by
Apple plans to release new MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac mini models with the M4 series of chips "this year," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman initially said these Macs would likely be announced during a virtual event this October, but he has been more vague about the timing lately, with wording such as "in the coming weeks" and now merely "this year." In any case, it is clear that...
tedlasso

'Ted Lasso' to Return to Apple TV+ as Season Four Allegedly 'Confirmed'

Thursday October 3, 2024 9:21 am PDT by
Ted Lasso will be returning for a fourth season, according to Sigmund Judge, a writer at MacStories and co-host of the Magic Rays of Light podcast. In a social media post today, Judge said he has confirmed that pre-production of the smash-hit Apple TV+ comedy series will begin in January in London, England. Apple has yet to confirm the fourth season, and there is no set release date yet....

Top Rated Comments

VulchR Avatar
136 months ago
A sad day for lawyers everywhere.... :)
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kdarling Avatar
136 months ago
For someone that is always talking about experience about the matter and knowledge, surely you are completely clueless about this particular matter, am I right?
I get my facts from the sources (actual court documents, evidence, etc), not from fansite articles.

Abusing SEPs that belong to the 80s is a bad business model.
That does not change the fact that Apple has stalled paying royalties for years, and that judges have negatively commented that Apple has been using the court system to try to lower the rates they'll have to pay.

Patent abuse is patent abuse, whether it's essential or not.

It's just as bad when a SEP holder tries for a intra-negotiation injunction, as when a non-SEP holder runs around suing everyone with similar solutions.

As Judge Posner put it, "You can't just assume that just because someone has a patent, he has deep moral right to exclude everyone else from using it."

I would add that I think this goes double for software patents.

Yes. Motorola was abusing SEPs (check), so they got nothing (check), as they should (check).
Not being able to get an injunction against Apple, does not mean Motorola won't get paid by Apple. Apple still owes royalties no matter what, and they've been piling up every day for years. Only now, Apple owes those back royalties to Google, since they own the patents.

That has been covered many times before. Apple knows it has to pay royalties on FRAND patents. But because competitors know its Apple, and they have lots of money, expect them to pay more for their licenses then anyone else. Thats not what FRAND is based upon.
This has indeed been covered many times before:

Apple refused to cross license. That's their decision, but Apple wanted to be treated special and pay the same lower rates that others got by cross-licensing.

That's hardly fair to the other companies.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
John.B Avatar
136 months ago
Samsung is going to do what they want anyway, regardless of any agreements that may or may not be in place. It's just how they do business.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
maflynn Avatar
136 months ago
Hopefully this will happen, both companies probably spent more money in lawyer fees/court costs then what either ever gained.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
longofest Avatar
136 months ago
It is past time that this happened. Get er' done!
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jynto Avatar
136 months ago
This is almost TOO good to be true.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)