EU to investigate whether the Samsung-Apple patent war is an abuse of IP rights to stifle competitio

[smurfy]

• EU Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia has voiced concerns that the Samsung-Apple patent war is an attempt to use intellectual property rights "as an instrument to restrict competition."
• The Commission is to investigate, and has requested information from both Apple and Samsung, but Almunia said their patent disputes are "only one case" out of many suspicious cases in the industry.

[url]http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/11/22/oukin-uk-apple-samsung-eu-idUKTRE7AL15920111122[/url]

[quote=Reuters]EU regulators investigating Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics over their patents dispute are worried intellectual property rights may be unfairly used by some firms against their rivals, the EU antitrust chief said on Tuesday.

The European Commission earlier this month asked Apple and Samsung for details on patents used as standards in the mobile telephone industry. Both companies are locked in a smartphone patent war involving more than 20 cases in 10 countries.

"We requested information from both Apple and Samsung. We have not yet received the answers. We need to look at this because IP rights can be used as a distortion of competition but we will need to look at the answers," EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia told reporters.

"In particular, in the IT sector, it is obvious it is not the only case. Apple and Samsung is only one case where IP rights can be used as an instrument to restrict competition," he said.

"Standardisation and IP rights are two instruments that in this new IT sector can be used as a tool to abuse."

This is the first time that the EU's antitrust chief has publicly voiced his concerns over patent wars in the mobile telephony sector.

Analysts have said companies can gain an advantage over their opponents with legal bans on rival products. Samsung's Galaxy tablet is the hottest competitor to Apple's iPad which dominates tablet sales worldwide.

Apple is also involved in patent disputes with Taiwan's HTC Corp and Motorola.

The Commission can fine companies up to 10 percent of global turnover for breaching EU rules.[/quote]

[Electrocuter]

Isn't it obvious that it is?

[AceOfDivine]

Oh look, EU actually doing something useful.
US should take an example.

[Awesomecaek]

[QUOTE=AceOfDivine;33404632]Oh look, EU actually doing something useful.
US should take an example.[/QUOTE]

EU does that rather frequently, problem is that people always care only when somehting fucks up.

The same applies for US, only in even greater degree.

[SweetSwifter]

This is good news. I hope the EU will serve as the parent pulling the two fighting kids from one another, then grounding them both.

Or just Apple, that'd be even sweeter.

[Awesomecaek]

[QUOTE=SweetSwifter;33404886]This is good news. I hope the EU will serve as the parent pulling the two fighting kids from one another, then grounding them both.

Or just Apple, that'd be even sweeter.[/QUOTE]

At this point both Samsung and Apple are to blame, pretty much evenly. They both deserve severe penalties, in my opinion.

[chunkymonkey]

Well it's about fucking time.

[Fatal-Error]

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;33405014]At this point both Samsung and Apple are to blame, pretty much evenly. They both deserve severe penalties, in my opinion.[/QUOTE]

While samsungs actions are entirely retaliatory I somewhat agree.
Atleast it would discourage this kind of shit flinging in the future.

[DiBBs]

Why isn't there already a system in place to stop that kind of fuckery that we observed apple pulling.

Maybe like... "apple, you've already patented 15 things today, come back tomorrow."

Sort of thing..

[Terminutter]

[QUOTE=DiBBs27;33405088]Why isn't there already a system in place to stop that kind of fuckery that we observed apple pulling.

Maybe like... "apple, you've already patented 15 things today, come back tomorrow."

Sort of thing..[/QUOTE]

Because they could get around that by making more subsidary companies and using each one to its limits for the day, due to the "company = human" bullshit.
The entire system needs a rehash.

[jellybaby34]

The penny finally drops.

[Kaabii]

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;33405014]At this point both Samsung and Apple are to blame, pretty much evenly. They both deserve severe penalties, in my opinion.[/QUOTE]

It's not evenly at all. Samsung should be punished for contributing to the war using patents, I agree. But they never would have done that if Apple hadn't sued them in the first place. Apple deserves a larger penalty for starting the stupid patent war to begin with.

[Smartlord]

About damn time [I]someone[/I] did something