Samsung is reportedly close to a settlement with European authorities over how it licenses its standards essential patents.
Citing two people familiar with the negotiations, Bloomberg News reported that the deal needs just minor changes to win approval from regulators.
The European Commission opened a formal investigation into Samsung last January following patent lawsuits filed by the South Korean firm the previous year.
Samsung was accused of having failed to honour its commitment given in 1998 to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to license any standard essential patents relating to European mobile telephony standards on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.
Samsung was later warned not to abuse standards essential patents in its ongoing tit-for-tat patent dispute with Apple.
If, after the parties have exercised their right of defence, the Commission concludes that there is sufficient evidence of an infringement, it can issue a decision prohibiting the conduct and impose a fine of up to 10 % of a company's annual worldwide turnover.
A final decision is expected within the next few weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment