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  (Source: wikipeers.com)
The European Commission is concerned that other firms could mimic Apple and Samsung's patent war and lead to the unfair use of intellectual property rights against rivals

Much of Apple and Samsung's 2011 has been spent duking it out over patents. Apple initially went after Samsung earlier this year and accused it of copying Apple's products when creating its Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets. Now, the European Commission is concerned that other firms could mimic Apple and Samsung's patent war and lead to the unfair use of intellectual property rights against rivals.

Throughout the year, Apple and Samsung have gone back and forth with patent issues. Apple claimed that Samsung created its Galaxy line such as the Galaxy Tab 10.1 by ripping off Apple's design. Apple succeeded in killing Samsung's Australian tablet sales, banned the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany, and sought to ban Samsung's phones and Android tablets in Britain. But Samsung did some retaliating of its own by filing a 3G lawsuit against Apple in France, looking to ban iPhone 5 sales (back before it was revealed that the anticipated iPhone 5 was really the iPhone 4S), and modifying its hardware and software to prevent further lawsuits.

Earlier this month, the European Commission started looking into FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) violations associated with the Apple/Samsung patent war. Now, the EU's latest concern has to do with the potential misuse of patents in other areas of the IT sector. 

"We requested information from both Apple and Samsung," said Joaquin Almunia, EU Competition Commissioner. "We have not yet received the answers. We need to look at this because IP rights can be used as a distortion of competition but we will need to look at the answers.

"In particular, in the IT sector, it is obvious it is not the only case. Apple and Samsung is only one case where IP rights can be used as an instrument to restrict competition. Standardization and IP rights are two instruments that in this new IT sector can be used as a tool to abuse."

Source: Reuters


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who wrote this article????
By hexxthalion on 11/23/2011 10:22:51 AM , Rating: 3
seriously, what i'm reading here is complete BS. it's samsung and possibly moto who is being investigated by EU for trying to use FRAND related patents against apple. apple is using design patents only.

just get over it, samsung copies, has copied and will copy other's work. research a bit about samsung and their practices, bribery and so on.




RE: who wrote this article????
By matty123 on 11/23/2011 11:19:05 AM , Rating: 2
As pointed out in the post above it seems that will not be the focus of the EU investigation, rather the EU is looking at anti-trust for both companies and I hate to say it but apple has the far greater chance of getting found guilty if this turns out to be true, seeing as they have aquaried injunctions against many samsung products in different countries.


RE: who wrote this article????
By hexxthalion on 11/24/2011 1:11:20 PM , Rating: 2
nope, wrong. EU is going to look into Samsung's and Motorola's asserted patents since Samsung and possibly Motorola are using patents to which license should have been offered to Apple based on fair, reasonable and non discriminatory bases. EU is not going to investigate Apple, that's the nonsense author of this article is trying to tell you.


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