When it comes to the cell phone market, one can see that there has been a tough and tight competition between the leading mobile companies i.e. Apple and Samsung. Ever since there was the emergence of Galaxy S Smartphone, both Apple and Samsung have been trying to attain the tag of the most successful Smartphone manufacturer. Some of their disputes in courts of different countries is as mentioned below.
1. Smartphone Disputes in South Korean court
Samsung filed a lawsuit in the year 2011 in Seoul’s central District court and had cited five patent infringements. Again in the month of August, 2011, the Central District court in Seoul declared that Apple has infringed two technology patents of Samsung while the later has violated only one of the patents of Apple. Apple had infringed the wireless patents of Samsung while Samsung had infringed “bounce back effect” in iOS of Apple. Both the companies were awarded a small damage and temporary sales halt was ordered on both of them on the infringing products.
2. Disputes in Japanese courts
Samsung had cited two infringements against Apple in the Tokyo District Court of Japan. Samsung had claimed the infringement of iPhone and iPad models on Samsung patents. Many other patent suits were filed by Apple against Samsung. On 31st August, 2012, the District court in Japan declared that the Smartphone and the tablets of Samsung had in no way violated the Apple patents. Legal costs were awarded which were to be reimbursed to Samsung. All the complaints filed by Apple were turned down by the three judge panel in Japan.
3. German Courts
In the year 201, Apple had claimed that Samsung had infringed two of its interface patents. Germany’s Landgericht court granted Apple’s request and permitted a preliminary injuction and Samsung was barred from selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Reports were found that evidence tampering was done by Samsung and after that, the German Court granted a lesser injunction to Apple and this was applied only to the German market. In the month of September 2011, the court declared a decision in the favor of Apple that similarity was found in Samsungs models.
4. Mannheim Regional court Hearing
Both Samsung and Apple had filed cases which involved the ownership of the slide to unlock feature on the Smartphones. These cases were dismissed by the state court judges of Manheim in the month of March 2012. On September 21, the cases filed by Apple against Samsung regarding the infringement of the Apple’s touch screen technology were dismissed by the Mannheim Regional court.
5. Dutch Courts
In the month of August, 2011, three telephone models of Samsung were banned by The Hague. In the month of September, Samsung demanded a ban on the Apple’s iPhone and iPhone sales on the grounds that Apple did not have any licenses for using the 3G mobile technology. But the court dismissed the case and declared that the 3G technology was an industrial standard. Again in January 2012, Apple had claimed that there was infringement of its design rights by Samsung. But this case was dismissed by the Dutch court and the court gave decision in favour of Samsung.
