Samsung, HTC said to be going through with plans to sue Apple for LTE
Samsung said they had plans to file a lawsuit to block Apple’s iPhone 5 if it were to launch with 4G LTE radios, and Apple sure enough did that at its announcement event today. So is Samsung going to go through with its word? According to Korea Times, Samsung has already started filing paperwork.
The OEM found good reason to go for the jugular after Apple was granted a win for Samsung’s infringement of design and utility patents. The damages were over $1 billion large, and that no doubt caught a majority of Samsung’s attention. While they’re already in the process of appealing that ruling they’re going to leverage some patents of their own.
Samsung reportedly owns 10% of all the LTE patents owned in the world, so they have a pretty sizable chunk for the growing technology. Unfortunately, LTE’s status as a standard will undoubtedly force Samsung to proceed under the rules of FRAND, which means fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory.
Samsung can’t completely shun Apple from using the patents, and they can’t charge a ridiculous amount of money to use them, either. But perhaps it’ll open a much-needed door to a possible cross-licensing agreement, or a means of getting Apple to just back off.
It looks like Samsung won’t be alone, either, as HTC is also said to be filing their initial paper work to sue Apple for the use of LTE in the iPhone 5. The two aren’t necessarily working together, but they will be giving Apple a big headache as the tables turn in a way that they haven’t yet before. We’ll be monitoring the situation closely. [via IGN, Korea Times]