EU to investigate Samsung over patent rights

PanARMENIAN.Net - Samsung's attempt to limit the ability of rivals such as Apple to use its patents on wireless technology for smartphones and tablet computers may break European Union competition rules, the bloc's executive said Tuesday, Jan 31.

According to DPA, in a statement, the European Commission said it had opened a 'formal investigation to assess whether Samsung Electronics has abusively ... used certain of its standard essential patent rights to distort competition in European mobile device markets.'

In 1998, Samsung had pledged to EU regulators to make its patents on mobile technology available to competitors through licenses issued on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, the commission noted.

But in 2011 - amid a worldwide legal battle between Apple's iPad and Samsung's Galaxy tablet computers - the South Korean company sued rivals in several EU states over 'alleged infringements of certain of its patent rights,' the EU executive said.

Its investigation, it added, will determine whether Samsung's legal action 'amounts to an abuse of a dominant position,' which is prohibited by EU treaties and which the commission can punish with stiff fines.