Samsung Dissolved Qualcomm Partnership to Sue Apple

We've seen how Apple managed to turn its patent war with Samsung into an absolutely bizarre situation, so now we get to see what weird things happened as part of the latter's counterattack.

Samsung hasn't landed in situations as strange as the one Apple might soon be in, the one that gave ''cognitive dissonance'' a new meaning.

Nevertheless, it did create one that is just as radical: the dissolution of an 18-year agreement with a third party.

Said third party is none other than Qualcomm, and the agreement implied that Samsung would not sue it or its customers over use of 3G patents.

For those who want background information, Qualcomm and Samsung inked that deal way back in 1993.

The termination of the contract happened in April 2011, as Samsung needed those patents in its war against Apple.

"There was an agreement between Samsung and Qualcomm. That agreement was not a license agreement. It contains a contractual provision that Samsung would not sue Qualcomm or customers of Qualcomm who apply [the 3G patents]," Samsung's counsel said, according to ZDNet.

"Samsung has done nothing other than take steps to protect its patent rights against infringement in the same way in it would in the ordinary course in circumstances where it has been sued by Apple, and Apple has refused to enter negotiations for the UMTS patent."

This matter has to do with the Australian fight, not the US or UK one. Samsung is trying to convince the court that Apple infringes three patents (originally seven), arguing that the Cupertino company refused its FRAND-term “commercial rate” for use of the technology.

All we can say at this point is what we've said before, repeatedly, and what certain people in the IT industry agree with as well: this Apple-Samsung war shows that the whole IP system in the world is out of control and being used as a means to destroy competition and fair play instead of enforcing it. It's a contest of how good each side's lawyers are.