Dutch Court Rejects Samsung Patent Claims Against Apple

A judge at the district court in the Hague on Friday rejected claims that Samsung had made against Apple regarding four patents.

Samsung wanted Apple to pay for licensing the patents in question, and the court to issue an injunction banning the import and sale of Apple’s iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, iPad 2, as well as upcoming products, until licensing terms are in place. But the latter won’t happen at this point.

The patents are standards-essential, which means they are incorporated in internationally accepted technology standards — in this case 3G. Standards-essential patents are licensed under so-called Fair, Reasonable, and Non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms, which is what Samsung has to offer Apple.

But the judge felt that Samsung didn’t go through the FRAND licensing process properly. The terms it offered Apple did not comply with FRAND terms, because the royalties were too high, according to a spokesman at the court. The likely outcome is that the two companies now have to go back to the negotiating table, he said.

The patents are related to methods of managing the data connection and speed between a mobile station, such as a smartphone or tablet, and a network base station.

Samsung and Apple did not reply to questions about the outcome.

The ruling from the Dutch court ends a busy week in the legal battle between Apple and Samsung, and Apple has emerged as the big winner.

On Thursday, Apple won an interim Federal Court injunction to prevent the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Australia until the legal proceedings between the two companies have been resolved.

The two companies also met in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Thursday, where Apple is hoping to get another preliminary injunction, this time against the sale of the Infuse 4G, Galaxy S 4G, Droid Charge, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

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