Truce in the patent war... kind of. Samsung and Apple have agreed to scale down their international legal dispute and withdraw patent lawsuits outside the United States, a Samsung Electronics spokesman in Seoul, South Korea said on Wednesday. "This agreement does not involve any licensing arrangements, and the companies are continuing to pursue the existing cases in U.S. courts," the South Korean tech giant said in a statement. There was no immediate comment from Apple. Global smartphone leaders Apple and Samsung had been at each other's throats in courts around the world for three years, accusing each other of infringing patents in their popular handsets and other mobile devices. The Samsung spokesman said the rival firms had agreed to end patent disputes in nine countries, without elaborating on why they would continue to fight it out in U.S. courts. In May, a U.S. jury left the total damages Samsung must pay U.S.-based Apple unchanged at $119.6 million, after additional deliberations in a trial where the South Korean smartphone maker was found to have infringed three Apple patents.
IN DEPTH
- Jury Orders Samsung to Pay Apple $119.6M in Patent Infringement Case
- Apple, Google Settle Smartphone Patent Litigation
- Facebook Beats Surfbook in Patent-Infringement Trial
- Reuters