EU Nails Samsung With Formal Investigation Over 3G Patent Abuse

From DailyTech: Europe has been a focal battleground in the international patent dispute between Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (KS:005930) and Apple, Inc. (AAPL). Of late, justices in EU member states seem to be growing tired of the discourse and have been throwing the cases out of court. Samsung has seen this happen several times and Apple has also been on the receiving end.

Further evidence of European regulators' growing frustration came today when Samsung was slapped with a formal antitrust investigation. The investigation follows an information-gathering phase, in which EU officials reached out to both Samsung and Apple.

An EU executive commented to Reuters, "The (European) Commission will investigate, in particular, whether in doing so (seeking injunctions on patent infringements in 2011) Samsung has failed to honor its irrevocable commitment given in 1998 to the European Telecommunications Standards."

The sticky mess Samsung finds itself in comes courtesy of the "fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory" (FRAND) rules, which the EU -- like the U.S. -- uses to govern patents on vital technology standards, such as 3G wireless communication technologies. The FRAND rules mandate that the filer show willingness to license the patent.

The EU investigation will probe into whether Samsung broke the law by refusing to license these patents to Apple and suing it with them. A key point of debate will perhaps be whether it is "fair" to deny a company that is trying to sue a firm out of business licensing. Samsung may have a hard time making that case, given the offensive nature it took in the EU campaign, being the first to file in several regions.

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