Dating back to April of 2011, the patent war between Samsung
and Apple has been fierce and vicious. “This
whole patent war is one that Apple, and Steve Jobs in particular, started,
upending a long-standing "gentleman's agreement" between U.S. mobile
phone companies; all had competing patents but were generally happy to license
them to each other. “ (link) Together,
the two electronic behemoths account for well over one half of the phones sold worldwide,
with Samsung claiming over 31% of the market in 2013 compared to Apple’s 14%.
The damages claimed by both sides’ numbers in the billions, with one patent
suit by Apple alone originally claiming 2.75 billion in damages. The outcome of this trial in August of 2012 was
in Apple’s favor, “After 21 hours of deliberation, a nine-person jury has sided
with Apple on a majority of its patent infringement claims against Samsung
Electronics. The jury also awarded Apple more than $1 billion in damages” (link).
Just a few months earlier, Samsung had won a victory with the International
Trade Commission that could have resulted in a ban on Apple selling the iPhone
4 and 3G-capable iPads. This decision
was recently vetoed by President Obama’s administration. “U.S. Trade
Representative Michael Froman made the decision to veto the ban on the Apple
devices, citing concerns about patent holders gaining "undue leverage"
as well as potential harm to consumers and competitive conditions in the U.S.
economy.” (link)
This is the first time in over 26 years that a President has overruled the ITC.
Just a week later, the ITC ruled in favor of Apple, limiting imports on certain
of Samsung’s products, but the odds of that ruling being overturned are
probably very slim. To me this seems to
be the Obama administration playing favorites with a U. S. based company.
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