Apple
Inc. (AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) are starting to wind down
their global patent battle.
The
companies said in a joint statement on 6 August that they have agreed to drop
all suits against each other in countries outside the U.S. Claims are being
abandoned in Australia, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Netherlands, the U.K., France
and Italy.
The
agreement shows Apple and Samsung may be nearing a conclusion to what has been
a drawn-out and occasionally nasty worldwide patent fight, which has sprouted
alongside the booming market for touch-screen smartphones. Apple has accused
Samsung of copying its iPhone designs, while Samsung has countered that Apple
is using pieces of its wireless-transmission technology without permission. Neither side won an overarching decision harming the other’s sales,
and judges repeatedly urged the companies to settle rather than play out
their dispute in court.
There
had already been signs of de-escalation prior to today’s announcement. Apple
and Samsung agreed in June to drop their appeals of a patent-infringement case
at the U.S. International Trade Commission that resulted in an import ban on
some older Samsung phones. Apple and Google Inc., which makes the Android
mobile operating system that Samsung uses in many of its handsets, also
announced a deal in May to drop lawsuits against one another related to
Motorola Mobility.
Still,
they said in the statement that they aren’t ending the legal battles
completely, nor have they reached any cross-licensing agreement. Samsung shares
fell in Seoul.
“Apple
and Samsung have agreed to drop all litigation between the two companies
outside the United States,” the companies said in the statement. “This
agreement does not involve any licensing arrangements, and the companies are
continuing to pursue the existing cases in U.S. courts.”
The
patent fights grew out of the surging sales for smartphones. After Cupertino,
California-based Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, popularizing the use of
phones with touch screens and Internet access, Samsung followed suit with a
wave of models with different styles and prices.
The
rivalry sparked two protracted patent-infringement cases in federal court in
San Jose, California. Apple scored victories in the two California suits,
including a $930 million verdict in 2012 and a $120 million result earlier this
year.
The
hearings unveiled a trove of internal company documents on both sides,
including e-mails showing Samsung’s urgency to quickly get a smartphone on the
market to match Apple’s iPhone, and notes from Apple executives complaining
about the effect of Samsung’s advertising on the iPhone.
The
settlement comes as Samsung grapples with declining demand for its smartphones
and slumping earnings. Its global market share declined 7.4 percentage points
last quarter from a year earlier, and the company lost the top spots in key
markets China and India.
Complicating
the legal spat has been that Apple and Samsung are close business partners,
with Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung providing critical components like semiconductors
and memory chips for Apple’s mobile devices.
The
world’s top two smartphone makers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in
legal fees on battles across four continents to dominate a market that was
valued at $338.3 billion last year, according to IDC. Samsung controlled about
31 percent of the global market last year, compared
with Apple’s 15 percent, the market researcher said.