Samsung-Apple Battle in Germany
According to foreign media on November 23 (local time), a lawsuit filed by Samsung against Apple’s patent infringement was suspended by the Mannheim Regional Court. As a result, all five of the 3G standard-essential patents (SEPs) were dismissed or suspended on the grounds of a possibility that a patent is invalid. The patent in question is EP1679803, a “method for configuring gain factors for uplink service in radio telecommunication system.”
Judge Andreas Voss said that the full bench has decided to suspend this litigation, pending a parallel nullity (invalidation) action before the Federal Patent Court of Germany. The court has identified an infringement, but questions the validity of the patent. Moreover, it is uncertain whether or not the plaintiff has the standing to sue.
The recent case was one of the two lawsuits brought in December 2011. The other one was also suspended in January of this year on the same grounds. Previously, all three of the cases filed in April 2011 were rejected on the grounds that Samsung was not able to prove its SEP assertions against Apple.
Florian Mueller, blogger of FOSS Patents that covers patent news, said, “All of Samsung’s SEP assertions in Germany have a 100% failure rate, which stands in total contrast to the company’s enormous royalty demands.”