20

Mathys & Squire

JULY 2014

Apple v

Samsung Smartphone Wars The Story So Far

The litigation between smartphone giants Apple and Samsung has become one of the most well-known and fiercely fought Intellectual Property battles of recent times. It has, however, come at a cost - in money spent prosecuting and defending the cases in courts across the world, in the payment of damages awarded to each side and, crucially, to the highly-prized reputations of both parties. This month, Lawyer Monthly benefits from an exclusive article by Ilya Kazi of Mathys & Squire, explaining the Apple V Samsung dispute so far.

T www.lawyer-monthly.com

o fully understand the legal battle between Apple and Samsung, the litigation needs to be seen in the context of the wider “smartphone wars”. This began in 2009 with

litigation between Nokia and Apple. Samsung was brought into litigation in 2011 when it was sued in the US by Apple who alleged infringement of a number of its patents, designs and other IP rights.

Initially, the smartphone wars seemed to be characterised by US companies defending

their market position against overseas rivals from Asia and Europe. However, as the litigation developed, companies merged and licence agreements were negotiated, and the smartphone wars transformed into an arms-length battle between Apple and Google.

Litigation on this scale and extent has not been seen before in the telecoms and electronics fields. Most large companies in this technical sector have built up significant patent portfolios over many years. Previously,