Why Samsung Took the Apple Patent Battle International

It is no surprise that Samsung retaliated against Apple's claims of patent infringement with some patent accusations of its own, but the fact that Samsung chose to file lawsuits internationally against Apple in three different countries seems a bit perplexing. Piece it may seem like a random move on the part of Samsung to include the humanity in the letters patent silliness, there is a method to the madness.

Why wouldn't Samsung simply countersue Apple in the US Zone Court of Yankee CA where Apple filed its lawsuit against Samsung to begin with? Did Samsung just throw several darts at a mapping on the wall up parliamentary law to make its judicial proceeding an equal chance for the whole world, operating theatre is in that respect perhaps some with kid gloves considered logic to Samsung's quality of venues?

image of gavel — At that place is amethod to the insaneness for why Samsung chose to countersue internationally.

I asked Florian Mueller, a engineering science patent and intellectual holding expert who closely follows litigation like this and shares his insights on his blog, FOSS Patents, for his thoughts on the strategy behind Samsung's international countersuits.

Mueller explained to Pine Tree State that companies like Samsung choose the venue for filing a suit settled on a variety of criteria. The company wants to succeed a legal triumph in the largest possible grocery store, but also wants to ensure a high level of certainty that it can make headway, and it wants to achieve victory as quickly as possible. According to Mueller, the for the first time company that wins a legal victory or is awarded an enjoining of some sort has the reward and gains significant leverage for whatever ongoing resolution negotiations.

E.g., consider the jural sleight of hand that Verizon had to blend through in order to find a loophole that would allow it to dispute the FCC net neutrality framework in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The case was eventually tossed on a technicality, simply Verizon successful a concerted effort to take the legal battle to that locale because that court has an established history of being sympathetic to Net providers and finding against the FCC.

But, opportunism is probably a larger factor than empathy in Samsung's prize of nations to file patent suits against Apple. Mueller told me that patent litigation in the United States is a sorely slow process. Many companies besides submit legal challenges to the International Trade Commission (ITC) because that organization typically hands down a conclusion within 18 months.

Notwithstandin, recent cases earlier the ITC don't look to live going the way the litigants intended, sol Samsung might undergo the ITC as being too risky. Rather than peat bog things land in US authorities courts, though, Samsung opted to take the battle international. Much courts may also afford a persuasion surgery psychological reward for an "underdog" competitor being oppressed by an American tech giant like Orchard apple tree.

Mueller notes that an international, multi-jurisdictional legal engagement lavatory live a logistical incubus, and consume considerable resources, but world players like Apple and Samsung let the skills, resources, and lawyers on retainer to take the challenge on.