Netherlands court denies Samsung injuncation against Apple

Samsung continues to be less successful in its legal endeavors against Apple than vice versa. On Friday, a Dutch court rejected Samsung's request for an injunction against all of Apple's mobile products that use 3G telecommunications technology.

Samsung had filed the four patent lawsuits against Apple in late September.

The two technology giants have been locked in an acrimonious battle in 10 countries involving smartphones and tablets since April. Four patent infringement cases launched by Samsung against Apple were filed in the Netherlands alone.

On Friday, the Rechtbank's-Gravenhage, which is a Dutch court based in the city of The Hague, denied an injunction request by Samsung. It said that Samsung's 3G patents were part of "essential standards" which should be open to license under FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) terms and that the two companies should negotiate an agreement.

Worse for Samsung is the fact that it had filed patent-infringement claims in France and Italy in an attempt to ban the sale of the iPhone 4S there, using the same patents.

Foss Patents Floriam Mueller said, "Apple will be taking French and Italian translations of the Dutch ruling with it. This makes it a long shot for Samsung that it could win an injunction in the EU based on its 3G patents." It is, of course, possible that the French and Italian courts will go their own way in terms of a decision, but it would seem unlikely.

Samsung and Apple have been engaged in patent battles in 10 countries since April. Samsung has been on the losing end of most of the skirmishes, and earlier this month the Korean firm was forced to upgrade three of its smartphones to work around temporary sales bans on earlier versions of the devices that a Dutch court had said violated an Apple patent.