If it seems like things have quieted down on the Apple vs Samsung and Samsung vs Apple lawsuit stories, that is only partially true. Last year it seemed like almost every week there was a constant stream news regarding the Patent Wars, and especially between Samsung and Apple. While it is true that things have quieted down a bit over the last few months, part of the reason we haven't reported every piece of news is because we wanted to wait until something more interesting happened. Sadly, this story isn't that, but since we haven't reported much on the Apple and Samsung patent wars in a while, we thought it was about time we shared something.
This story is somewhat of a follow-up to some news from a few weeks ago. The story then was that Samsung had some of their counter-suit patent lawsuits vs. Apple thrown out by a Dutch court, and they were ordered to pay €800,000 in costs to Apple. Today, the opposite has happened. The same Dutch court ruled in favor of Samsung in regards to some 3G patents that the court found Apple is infringing. Today's ruling regards European Patent EP1188269, which protects "Apparatus for encoding a transport format combination indicator for a communications system." This will affect Apple's older iPads (versions one and two) and iPhones (3G, 3Gs, and 4), although there was no talk of a sales ban at this time.
The silly part is that it is likely any damages Apple may be ordered to pay Samsung for these patent infringements will likely be the same or similar to what Samsung was ordered to pay Apple from the previous ruling. It becomes just a wash. This makes the whole affair an even bigger waste of time.
Source: Engadget
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