Apple & Samsung Towards Patent Issue Settlement

Apple & Samsung are going towards to put an end to all the battleship by signing a royalties deal that would be good for both parties, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) revealed to Korea Times.

“As far as I know, the companies recently resumed working-level discussions toward the signing of a potential deal. They are in the process of narrowing differences over royalty payments.” a Korean FTC official told the Korea Times. 

The lawyers for both companies agreed they would have a proposal for discussion by January. Koh, who said she was disappointed with the suggested timeline, agreed to the date proposed by the attorneys.

Apple is accusing Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus as well as other devices of violating four of its patents in the patent lawsuit set to kick off in March. It will examine software and user interface patent breaches, including the rights to the search technology integrated in the iPhone Siri voice feature. Apple’s success over Samsung may very well be the incentive Samsung needed to attempt talks again.

A California jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion last August after determining Samsung violated six of Apple’s iPhone patents. In March, federal district court judge Lucy Koh ruled that $450.5 million was incorrectly awarded by the jury and ordered the new trial. Samsung was still obligated to pay the remaining $600 million awarded by the jury, however. It appears Samsung has more to gain from a licensing deal than does Apple, an agreement would certainly save both sides astronomical legal fees.

As per Korea Times article, the parties remain “poles apart over the patent values that each has.” Samsung is hoping to ink an all-inclusive “cross-licensing” deal, permitting it to access all Apple’s design-related, some standard-essential and commercial patents. Apple, on the other hand, wants Samsung to pay more than $30 per device for the Smartphone maker’s patent violations — an amount Samsung deems to be “too much,” a Samsung official told the Times.

Lets watch out the space for this battle ground and who gets the lead. Share your comments.