Andreas Udo de Haes for Computerworld:
Apple’s iPhone 4S does not infringe on four of Samsung Electronics’ key 3G patents, a court in The Hague, Netherlands, has ruled.
Apple need not pay Samsung royalties on the patents because the patents are already covered by Samsung’s licensing deal with Qualcomm, the maker of the 3G baseband chips used in the latest iPhone. This means Samsung’s patent rights in the case are exhausted, the court judges ruled.
Samsung isn’t having a lot of luck blocking Apple in its various patent cases. Maybe it should just give up.
They’re looking even more pathetic in this case because they not only steal Apple’s fundamental design aesthetic – but have the cheek to sue them as well!
They are suing Apple over Technical Patents in retailiation for Apple suing them over Design Patents.
Technical Patents that are required for technology to interact with other technology in an industry standard are required to be licensed without Discrimination.
Design Patents on how a Human interacts with Technology can be restricted. Apple is not obliged to license their Designs to any other companies, unless the other company also has Design Patents (Palm), or have Proprietary Technology Patents (Microsoft).
There is no ‘unless’. No company can be forced to license non essential tech to anyone else if they wish not to. The best you can do is invalidate the tech (or design) by showing that you aren’t using the same tech for the same means or the design wasn’t unique enough to deserve a patent in the first place.