What the Apple-Samsung lawsuit tells us about IP and standards development

By _EETimes - Collaborative Advantage (Si2 - Steve Schulz)

August 29, 2012

Much has been written about the potential impact to handset vendors arising from the high-profile, high-tech, and high-drama Apple-Samsung lawsuit.  However, the significant and relevant impact of this lawsuit on the development and adoption of standards has been widely overlooked.  Patent protection and management is an integral business concern for any consortium setting, even more so when an entire industry relies upon the safety and integrity of the resulting standards in addition to the safety of their protected IP.  Let’s explore the major risks and available solutions.

At issue in the trial are five Samsung patents relating to certain 3G standards developed under ETSI, in particular two that are deemed essential to implementation of the 3G standards.  While Samsung claimed that Apple violated their 3G patents (which were licensed to Intel, provider of the 3G silicon in the iPhone), Apple claimed those patents were invalid on the grounds that they violated U.S. Anti-Trust law.  The rationale is that these patents were not disclosed during the 3G standard development process, and were not subsequently licensed satisfying “reasonable and non-discriminatory” (RAND) terms. 

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