Why is Samsung still at it? If they do anything more to upset apple, apple can just ban all the phones breaking apples patents.

Apple started it, poking the tiger, I love Apple products as both an android and apple consumer, but i think Apple is slowly making themselves a target for hackers and even more hardcore anti-apple fans. Nobody likes a monopoly.

This post is interesting, but it omits mention of a very important fact: for a patent to be declared essential to LTE, the patent-holder first had to declare that he would license it to any and all comers on FRAND terms.

ETSI seemingly does very little to enforce these pledges, but US courts have long found FRAND pledges binding on the US arms of the patent-holders; likewise the EU Competition Commission and US DoJ recognize that without effect FRAND practices, ETSI is essentially itself a trust operating an oligopoly that illegally restrains competition.

Just as Motorola has finally agreed to accept Apple’s long-standing offer to license Moto’s GSM and CDMA patents, I cannot foresee how Samsung would do otherwise. Even if the regulatory and legal authorities do not act quickly, I imagine that Apple has already drafted the briefs in anticipation of Samsung carrying out its threat. And Samsung’s own counsel, having already seen Apple’s defense in the Samsung v Apple part of the just-concluded trial, are certainly anticipating the same.

It appears that Apple’s anti-trust claims have been tossed only because Apple was never actually blocked from selling phones that used the technology that Motorola and Samsung “refused” to license. That means the claim could be quite a bit stronger than it might appear from a simple reading of history.

PS: while ETSI has apparently done little to twist its members’ arms on licensing to non-ETSI firms, this post DOES highlight the fact that ETSI has a mechanism for setting a fair rate among members of a standards body. As long as Apple doesn’t stupidly play tit-for-tat and withhold its LTE patents, it’d seem that a Samsung refusal would directly violate its terms of membership in the standards group.

Samsung’s threats can’t be much more than a blustering attempt to save face. I just can’t see how this would end well for Samsung.

BTW: the notion that “Apple started it” is a line of reasoning that most people get disabused of by the time they are in grade school. It is useless.

And false. Motorola canceled Apple’s license to GSM IP within weeks of the iPhone’s release, and Apple’s negotiations for a license on FRAND terms have only come to fruit 5 years later, as Motorola changed its position in a court case. Apple of course, was ALSO sued by Nokia (and now licenses Nokia’s IP at about the same rate as the damages that Samsung was just found liable for).

It’s ALWAYS been the case that the GSM consortium has had some members who tried to use their patents illegally to restrain trade. This was true over a decade before Apple came on the scene, and Google started complaining that they got into a business that has been built on those patents.