I’m guessing that Samsung would rather be without one of the Christmas presents they received this year. The European Commission has sent at statement of objections to Samsung, claiming that the company has barred Apple from using patents vital to 3G UMTS wireless communication, which Samsung had agreed to license with fair terms to its competitors in Europe.
If Samsung can’t convince the Commission that they have acted fairly a harsh sentence will be served. Th Commission is a new party in the on going struggle between mobile manufacturers in what has become known as mobile wars. This very struggle is the reason for TH EU to look into this matter. The Commission stated earlier that “In 2011, Samsung sought injunctive relief in various Member States’ courts against competing mobile device makers based on alleged infringements of certain of its patent rights which it has declared essential to implement European mobile telephony standards. The Commission will investigate, in particular, whether in doing so Samsung has failed to honour its irrevocable commitment given in 1998 to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to license any standard essential patents relating to European mobile telephony standards on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. The Commission will examine whether such behavior amounts to an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU).
Apparently they found something…