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In the latest twist in the patent wars between the two companies, Samsung is to drop its patent injunction applications filed against Apple for standards-essential patent infringement in five European countries – Germany, the UK, France, Italy and the Netherlands.
Samsung announced today that it will withdraw its lawsuit seeking to block sales of Apple products in the aforementioned countries. The move from Samsung came just hours after a judge rejected Apple’s request for a ban on the sale of Samsung smartphones in the US.
“Samsung has decided to withdraw our injunction requests against Apple on the basis of our standard essential patents pending in European courts, in the interest of protecting consumer choice,” said the company in a statement today, as reported by Bloomberg.
However, Appleinsider has reported that a number of lawsuits against Apple, alleging patent infringement, will remain.
So far, Apple has had the most success in a series of IP infringement cases between it and Samsung that has spanned Europe, Asia, the US and Australia.
In August, Apple was awarded over US$1bn in damages in a patents trial in San Jose, California, after the jury decided that Samsung had infringed on certain Apple patents when it brought out a new range of Android-based smartphones and tablets.
The two companies have filed legal cases against each other in more than 10 countries, accusing each other of patent violations.
In November, Samsung added the iPad mini and the fourth-generation iPad to the list of product infringements it alleged Apple had committed.
