Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. have agreed to drop all their lawsuits outside of the United States, a monumental move from both the contending giants in a legal war that has raged on for years.
In a statement today, both Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and its South Korean rival have revealed that they will be dropping cases they have against each other in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, South Korea, and the U.K.
According to The Verge, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. said in a joint statement sent to them that:
“Samsung and Apple have agreed to drop all litigation between the two companies outside the United States. This agreement does not involve any licensing arrangements, and the companies are continuing to pursue the existing cases in U.S. courts.”
The iPhone-maker and Galaxy smartphones-maker started their legal war in 2011 when Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) filed a case against the latter alleging that it has “slavishly” copied its iPhone and its technologies.
In a report on Bloomberg’s Asia Edge, Zeb Eckert explained the situation more.
This is an eight-nation court battle that has raged for several years now and they have agreed to end all lawsuits outside the United States. Samsung and Apple [are] perhaps determining that these are unwinnable fights. Patent litigation [is] extremely complex especially when you are dealing with multiple jurisdictions – eight in fact – all with competing laws in many cases. So, it is extremely difficult to get a universal standard that is why their U.S. court fight…continues. [The U.S.] is certainly the biggest market for both these companies, for Apple in particular, but these patent suits [outside the U.S.] will be abandoned in Australia, Japan, South Korea, Germany, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, France [and] as well as Italy,” he said.
According to Eckert, analysts are saying that this may signal the end of the drawn-out Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) versus Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. legal war.
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