Softpedia
 

NEWS CATEGORIES:



NEWS ARCHIVE >>
SOFTPEDIA REVIEWS >>
MEET THE EDITORS >>
TRENDING TODAY
Home > News > Technology and Gadgets

August 27th, 2012, 09:08 GMT · By

Samsung Wanted to Negotiate with Apple Instead of Suing, Internal Memo Reveals

SHARE:

Adjust text size:

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
Enlarge picture
Samsung really suffered a heavy blow a few days ago, when the jury overseeing the case between it and Apple in San Jose, California, ruled almost totally in Apple's favor.

Samsung is, naturally, going to appeal the decision of the US court, but it won't stay silent during the time it takes to formulate the response.

Since the verdict has caused great concern among the company's customers and even its employees, the IT player sent a memo, in which it expresses its stance.

All things considered, the wording is quite diplomatic, but Samsung didn't miss the chance to point out how different the NDCA verdict is from others around the world.

In South Korea, the corporation's home market, a court did ban the Galaxy Tab and some other products, but it did the same to several Apple devices as well.

Some time before even that, the United Kingdom ruled that Galaxy Tab wasn't an iPad copy. To be fair, the California court also spared the tablet somewhat, but the rest of the verdict was quite heavily in Samsung's disfavor.

“The NDCA verdict starkly contrasts decisions made by courts in a number of other countries, such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and Korea, which have previously ruled that we did not copy Apple’s designs. These courts also recognized our arguments concerning our standards patents,” the company wrote in the memo.

“We are very disappointed by the verdict [...] and it is regrettable that [it] has caused concern amongst our employees, as well as our loyal customers.”

The memo also mentions that Samsung wanted to negotiate with Apple instead of letting things get legally tense. There is no turning back now though.

“We initially proposed to negotiate with Apple instead of going to court, as they had been one of our most important customers. However, Apple pressed on with a lawsuit, and we have had little choice but to counter-sue, so that we can protect our company,” the memo says.

“We will continue to do our utmost until our arguments have been accepted [...] History has shown there has yet to be a company that has won the hearts and minds of consumers and achieved continuous growth, when its primary means to competition has been the outright abuse of patent law, not the pursuit of innovation. We trust that the consumers and the market will side with those who prioritize innovation over litigation, and we will prove this beyond doubt.“


1,554 hits · 12 comments
Link to this article · Print article · Send to friend

MUST-READ RELATED ARTICLES:


Over 100 Million Tablets Will Ship This Year

Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 / 10.1 Updated to Android 4.0 in India

Samsung Suffers Embarrassing Defeat in Patent War with Apple, to Pay $1 Billion

People Are Already Buying More Tablets than Notebooks

ASUS Transformer TF300 Updated to Jelly Bean in Australia

READER COMMENTS:


Comment #1 by: ghodagadi on 27 Aug 2012, 13:47 UTC reply to this comment

Once again Samsung is only attempting to manage its defense. Its seeking to win the hearts and minds in the marketplace, but its actions don't support its actions.


Comment #2 by: SF on 27 Aug 2012, 14:08 UTC reply to this comment

Utterly irresponsible article from Pop that does not divulge what is now known: Apple and Steve Jobs tried to negotiate and even cross-license with Samsung back in 2010, to no avail.


Comment #3 by: pdq on 27 Aug 2012, 14:13 UTC reply to this comment

Samsung's assertion is certainly at odds with Apple's story, which (IIRC) had Apple's folks (and maybe Jobs himself) flying to Korea to complain about the copying, and offer to license, _before_ the lawsuits started flying. Apple's word is that Samsung turned them down cold, even while partners like Google were warning that the Samsung phones were too similar to the iPhone.


Comment #4 by: marlo on 27 Aug 2012, 14:21 UTC reply to this comment

Samsung you are a thief and copycat. Stop making excuses for your crime.


Comment #5 by: jameskatt on 27 Aug 2012, 14:35 UTC reply to this comment

Samsung should have negotiated in good faith with Apple. Apple, after all, was willing to give Samsung a excellent license to its proprietary intellectual property - so long as Samsung did not copy the iPhone and developed their own smartphone design.

But Samsung continued to want to blatantly copy Apple. After all, they lack design skills. So they refused to negotiate.

Microsoft, on the other hand, has a license to Apple's patents. And has been great and creative in developing the Windows Phone platform. Samsung should know - it makes smartphones that runs Windows too.

This lawsuit loss (a big slap to the face of Samsung) and Samsung's memo may indicate it is more likely now to negotiate with Apple.

Apple already has more lawsuits against Samsung in the U.S. Now that Samsung has been labeled a copycat by a jury, this ruling will affect future patent lawsuits in a bad way against Samsung.


Comment #6 by: podperson on 27 Aug 2012, 14:51 UTC reply to this comment

Since the memo post-dates the trial outcome, it hardly gives us insight into what Samsung wanted to do originally.


Comment #7 by: Don108 on 27 Aug 2012, 15:28 UTC reply to this comment

Interesting that Samsung didn't introduce any report of trying to negotiate with Apple during the trial while Apple proved they had tried to negotiate. I also don't see anything from Samsung about that letter from Google warning them that their devices were too close to the iPhone. Your article is doing nothing but spreading Samsung deceit and spin.


Comment #8 by: ghodagadi on 27 Aug 2012, 16:57 UTC reply to this comment

Then why didn't they? They even had a day last week during the trial when the judge asked the CEOs to meet. The fact that they wanted to has no bearing, they should have made a deal and better still they should not have copied. It was obvious to the jurors that the executives instructed their divisions to copy and even Google asked them not to copy so closely. Their executives never had any intention of making a deal. This is just a face saving effort on their part. The exececutive of Samsung simply don't have the decency or courage to admit they are responsible for their divisions copying. I would urge you and all other readers not to buy any Samsung product period.


Comment #9 by: Synth on 27 Aug 2012, 20:53 UTC reply to this comment

Apple DID offer licensing terms for much, much less than this jury verdict. Samsung lost because it prioritized copying Apple as fast as possible, not innovation. The 130 page internal memo proved that beyond a shadow of doubt. Not sure the other countries had access to that memo. It instructed Samsung engineers to copy Apple down to the pixel.


Comment #10 by: kcwookie on 27 Aug 2012, 21:25 UTC reply to this comment

If Samsung would have innovated, we wouldn't be talking about this, instead they took the cheap way out...not so cheap anymore. If Microsoft can innovate, why can't Samsung?


Comment #11 by: Peter Blood on 28 Aug 2012, 05:18 UTC reply to this comment

Apple DID try to negotiate with Samsung at a cost that would have been far less than this trial will cost them but Samsung declined. They have no one to blame but themselves. Their stances on innovation than suing are disingenuous to the max. Crocofiles tears from a company who doesn't hesitate to steal trade dress from others than truly innovate on their own. They are the guilty party and should practice what they preach.


Comment #12 by: ldatsoftpedia on 02 Sep 2012, 16:34 UTC reply to this comment

Apple has a history of arrogant behavior toward their user base that once almost brought it bankrupt. Saved by Microsoft. Lately they are assuming again the control freak mentality so characteristic of its previous CEO. I am fed up, having to jailbreak my devices, and I am wary of the ever increasing lockdown of the Mac OSX and the censoring App Store is imposing on developers. I am changing to Samsung.

Copyright © 2001-2013 Softpedia. Contact/Tip us at

WindowsGamesDriversMacLinuxScriptsMobileHandheldNews

SUBMIT PROGRAM   |   ADVERTISE   |   GET HELP   |   SEND US FEEDBACK   |   RSS FEEDS   |   UPDATE YOUR SOFTWARE   |   ROMANIAN FORUM