Samsung accused Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) of not paying it 3G royalties for Apple's iPhones and iPads, a sum that could amount to around $100 million annually, in the latest bit of legal intrigue between the two technology titans locked in a long-running patent battle.
The royalty fight came during a hearing before a Dutch court, in which Samsung urged the court to ban the sale in the Netherlands of all Apple devices that use 3G technology, which would presumably include Apple's newest iPhone, expected in October. A Dutch judge said he would rule by Oct. 14 on that ban request while other patent litigation between the two companies continues.
Samsung also laid out a new prong in its legal strategy, arguing that Apple asked to license 3G technology patents from Samsung in 2007 or 2008. Apple disputed that assertion.
"Samsung never demanded a license until 2010 and before that Samsung remained silent because Apple is an important customer of Samsung," Apple's lawyer, Rutger Kleemans, told the Dutch court on Monday, according to Reuters.
According to local media reports of the Dutch hearing, Samsung is trying to get Apple to pay a 2.4 percent royalty fee for each of the four 3G patents it has asserted. All together, that would amount to around $100 million annually, according to estimates from IHS iSuppli.
Separately, Apple continued its fight to get Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 banned in Australia.
So far, Apple has managed to get Samsung's Android tablets banned in Germany--though Samsung is appealing that ruling--as well as some of Samsung's phones banned in the Netherlands.
The entire dispute, which started in April and stretches across continents, took another twist when Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) asserted in a U.S. court filing that Apple's decision to file an injunction to block the sale of Samsung devices in the United States for violating Apple patents will harm Verizon's LTE network and U.S. consumers.
For more:
- see this WSJ blog post (sub. req.)
- see this Reuters article
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)
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