Samsung suffered another blow in its patent infringement fight with Apple on Thursday when a U.K Judge ruled three of the electronics maker's 3G standard essential patents are invalid. The patents in question described a system for sending and receiving data over 3G wireless networks -- something Apple's iPhone and all other smartphones do.
UK court invalidates Samsung patents in fight with Apple
Justice Floyd from the Chancery Division in the High Court of England and Wales made the ruling, shooting down yet another line of attack in ongoing sting of patent infringement lawsuits between Apple and Samsung. The ruling also counts as yet another loss for Samsung, which is in line with the company's overall track record against Apple.
"Samsung has now officially failed to prevail on 25 standard-essential patent assertions against Apple, including eight patents it withdrew and one case that was stayed in Germany because the patent was deemed likely to be invalid," said Florian Mueller of Foss Patents. "Last week Samsung lost its 22nd SEP assertion against Apple [in Japan]. Samsung has prevailed on only three of its SEPs: two in Korea, one in the Netherlands."
Apple and Samsung have been locked in a legal battle over mobile device patent infringement claims in courts around the world for two years, and so far Apple looks to be the bigger winner in those cases. Apple won a high profile case in the United States in 2012 where a Federal Court Jury ruled Samsung infringed on several of its patents and awarded the iPhone and iPad maker over US$1 billion in damages.
Judge Lucy Koh, who has been overseeing the case, recently tossed out $450.5 million from that damages award and ruled a new trial must be conducted to determine what the damages award should be for that portion. The remaining part of the $1 billion award still stands.
Samsung has been pushing for a 2.4 percent royalty on all iPhone sales, which Mr. Mueller called an outrageous demand. The company's track record on SEP-based claims against Apple hasn't paid off, either. "Not only has Samsung lost more than two dozen SEP assertions against Apple but it's also been unable to enforce any non-SEP anywhere in the world," Mr. Mueller said.
Apple hasn't commented on the UK Court ruling, although Samsung isn't pleased. The company is reviewing the ruling and will likely file an appeal.