The European Commission is investigating whether Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. anticompetitively abused its patent rights by suing to block the sale of rival smartphones and other mobile devices based on patents that are part of wireless technology standards. The EC will focus on whether Samsung’s litigation violate EU antitrust law as well as Samsung’s irrevocable 1998 commitment to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to license its patents related to European third-generation wireless standards on a fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) basis.
Samsung and Apple Inc. are litigating over each others’ patents rights for wireless technology, including a suit in Germany, in which Apple has successfully enjoined blocking the import and sale of certain models of Samsung’s Galaxy line of tablet computers based on an iPad design patent. In France, a Paris judge refused to preliminarily enjoin the sale of Apple’s latest iPhone 4S, expressing skepticism toward Samsung’s claim that two of its essential 3G cellular telecommunications patents are affected. While infringement is presumed if a product uses the technological standard without the proper licensing, the judge concluded that Apple had demonstrated that its chips were made by Qualcomm Inc., which already has a licensing agreement with Samsung.