It appears as though a treaty of sorts has been agreed in the never-ending Apple vs. Samsung technology patent case, as the pair this week were revealed to have made an agreement of dropping all cases that are currently occurring against one another outside of their main battleground of the USA.
Perhaps simplifying the case a little with less complications on who has what patent in different territories, court cases that had been ongoing between the pair in places including Germany, South Korea, and the UK will now be dismissed, although that only extends as far as patent disputes, with licensing arrangements still considered fair game, according to BBC News.
Aside from any remaining or future cases in those departments, that means focus can now be shifted fully onto the high-profile, big-money argument between Apple and Samsung in the USA, in which Apple have generally been favoured (partially by force of quantity), with their rivals being ordered to concede $119.6m (paid) and in a different case $1.05b, which is still in dispute.
But the pair will now not have to worry as much about reducing any respective deficits in pounds, euros, yen or won, which will be a slight blow to Samsung as in spite of still bringing in less money than they are being ordered to pay in the global cases, they were chalking up more ‘victories’ than Apple in the non-American courtrooms.
But with their efforts presumably now focused entirely on the most costly of the cases, will the focus give either side an added edge in the patent debates?