Samsung and Apple have decided to focus on a single front in their patent war, dropping all legal action outside the US.
The two companies, which are in the tricky situation of being both partners and rivals, have been embroiled in a war of lawsuits for over three years. Well over ten patent infringement lawsuits were filed, mainly in 2011, as well as a number of sales injunctions.
Outstanding court cases in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea and England and Wales have all been dropped under the agreement.
Michael Risch, a law professor at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, told Bloomberg the decision to abandon these cases shows the companies believe “mixed worldwide results as not worth the effort”.
However, the outstanding court cases in the US are those where both parties are seeking the highest levels of damages - Apple was awarded US$119.6 million in May this year and over US$1 billion in 2012. Therefore it is unsurprising the two are still fighting it out there.
There had been rumblings earlier this year of a possible settlement between the companies. Apple and Samsung entered into talks in May to see if their respective grievances could be settled outside of court, and, while previous talks had failed, the torrent of successive suits from Apple had already started to tail off.
In a joint statement to The Verge, the companies said: "Samsung and Apple have agreed to drop all litigation between the two companies outside the United States."
"This agreement does not involve any licensing arrangements, and the companies are continuing to pursue the existing cases in US courts," they added.
This article originally appeared at pcpro.co.uk
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