Samsung has expressed desire to end its patent wars against Apple and other companies, at least for five years.
The Korean company is currently battling Apple in courts in more than 10 countries across Europe and can face fines in billions, if found guilty of infringing Apple's patents. The company has proposed a five-year pause, with regard to standards-essential patents (SEPs,) in the context of imposing European sales bans against competitors.
Samsung's adversaries (which include Nokia, Apple and Ericsson) will be expressing their views to the European Commission (EC) and will confirm if they are in agreement with Samsung's proposal, or disagree with it on certain grounds which they find weak.
Market observers, who are familiar with the smartphone patent battle between various handset makers, suggest that Samsung's proposals are "sneaky" and "full of loopholes."
Patents blogger Florian Muller, who in the past has consulted for companies such as Microsoft and Oracle, is of the opinion that Samsung's proposed deal is worse than the one FTC imposed on Motorola recently.
"Five years... is ridiculously short because there is no reason for which the abusive pursuit of SEP-based injunctions would be any more legal in five years' time than it is today," said Muller.
Samsung's "sneaky" proposal is 27 pages long and recommends that there should be a "negotiation period" of up to 12 months. In the event the aggrieved parties do not reach a mutual agreement, then an arbitrator or the court should be involved in settling the issue. On the other hand, if the parties involved do not agree on either of the mentioned solutions i.e. court or arbitration, then they would have no option but to opt for arbitration.
The US Department of Justice is currently investigating Samsung for its aggressive use of SEPs to seek sales bans against rivals.
The courtroom battles between Samsung and Apple is well-known by analysts and market observers. Both the companies have fought over patents and designs of their smartphones and tablets in courts since 2010. Apple also won a key battle in California in 2012 and was awarded damages of $1.05 billion against Samsung.
Interested parties like Apple, Nokia and more have been given a month to comment on Samsung's proposals.
