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Apple and Samsung Trying to Find 'Common Ground' in Efforts to End Patent War

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Apple and Samsung are attempting to find "common ground" in efforts to end their ongoing legal battle, reports The Korea Times (via GforGames). Citing sources "familiar with the negotiations", the paper notes that both firms are "trimming the number of disputed issues", stating that both Apple and Samsung are attempting to become "more practical" about finding a solution.

apple_samsung_logos.jpg
Another source also claimed that Apple would like to keep Samsung as one of its main parts suppliers, with the report referencing the long-rumored iWatch:
"As technology shifts toward wearable devices, Apple still wants to keep Samsung as its top-tier parts sourcing channel," another source said.

"The recent release of the Samsung OLED tablet is an indication that Samsung can manage OLED displays to be used in almost all wearable devices, a segment that Apple is greatly interested in."
Click to expand...
In the past two years, Apple and Samsung have been in two trials over the issue of patent infringement. The first trial in 2012 awarded Apple more than $1 billion in damages, however a damages retrial last November brought that amount down to $290 million. Meanwhile, the second trial wrapped up last month and found both companies guilty, although Samsung was ordered to pay $119.6 million while Apple was to pay just $158,400. Samsung has since filed an appeal to challenge the second verdict.

Last week, both companies also agreed to drop their cross-appeal rulings on an ITC ban for older Samsung products, which focused on patent 7,789,697, and dealt with the concept of accessories being recognized when they plug in to devices.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung Electronics CEO Oh-Hyun Kwon also reportedly attending a mediation session earlier this year, however both parties failed to reach an agreement in their ongoing legal battle. While a new agreement would take some time to reach, a move to end the ongoing legal battle would prove to be very beneficial for both Apple and Samsung.

Article Link: Apple and Samsung Trying to Find 'Common Ground' in Efforts to End Patent War
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/06/18/apple-samsung-common-ground-patent-war/
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bigchrisfgb

macrumors 65816
Jan 24, 2010
1,453
642
Good. Hopefully both companies can work together and hopefully build technologies together.
 
ChrisTX

ChrisTX

macrumors 68030
Dec 30, 2009
2,690
54
Texas
Quite different than the thermonuclear war Steve Jobs was trying to wage. Hopefully Tim Cook can help them settle their differences. Competition benefits everyone. :cool:
 
Vorboid

Vorboid

macrumors newbie
Sep 17, 2013
2
0
Meditation

At first glance, I thought it said that both CEO's had attended a meditation session.
 
keysofanxiety

keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
bigchrisfgb said:
Good. Hopefully both companies can work together and hopefully build technologies together.
Click to expand...

Yep. As much as I dislike Samsung's ethics, both Samsung and Apple work better together, and Samsung have excellent manufacturing prowess.
 
maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,438
43,345
I hope they really do, I'm sick and tired of hearing, seeing and reading all about the lawsuits.
 
Rogifan

Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
Nov 14, 2011
24,116
31,140
Didn't we already have a similar story earlier this year which turned out to be false?
 
K

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,023
7,867
The first award is still roughly $900 million, not $290 million. What happened was that a $400 million piece was reversed but $290 million was awarded in the retrial.
 
Plutonius

Plutonius

macrumors G3
Feb 22, 2003
9,032
8,403
New Hampshire, USA
It will never happen because Samsung will not change the way it operates. As shown in the Vanity Fair article awhile back, Samsung has large ethical issues with most of it's competitors (not just Apple). Samsung copies / steals, litigates, then stalls. It's how Samsung operates and, as much as I would also like to see Apple and Samsung work together, I think it's just Samsung stalling for more time.

Rogifan said:
Didn't we already have a similar story earlier this year which turned out to be false?
Click to expand...

Yes we did.
 
3

3282868

macrumors 603
Jan 8, 2009
5,281
0
I'm sure buying Nuance will make this easier, even if Apple moved on to Novauris for "Siri".
 
B

bigchrisfgb

macrumors 65816
Jan 24, 2010
1,453
642
jav6454 said:
Yes, and the world has flying pigs. Please read about Samsung's business practices. There was a nice article about them earlier here.
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It doesn't matter about Samsung's business practises, Apple gets 3rd parties to do most of it's manufacturing which has poor business practises.
Samsung are a lot more than a phone that competes with Apple. The fact that Apple and Samsung still work together on a lot of things despite patent wars between them shows that not everything gets in the way with business.
 
Batavian

Batavian

macrumors 6502
Mar 10, 2011
464
38
I can imagine the lawyers for each side knowing each others families, asking how their kids are doing, where they're going on the family vacation. They must all be on first name basis with each other by now.
 
K

krewger

macrumors regular
Sep 28, 2012
103
96
Samsung says to Apple "We don't know how to design on our own as we don't have a single creative person amongst all our employees, thats why we copy you and will continue to do so every chance we get". Apple responds "Alright we've got just the person for you, he's a new upcoming designer, he's Mr. Failing Intern and we think you will like his work very much, he is just developing a style all of his own". Samsung "Oh a designer of our very own, thank you Mr. Intern for coming to our rescue."

Ok, that was lame, but I'm running Yosemite and whichever intern made their new icons made system prefs and Launchpad Icons overly blue steel instead of a neutral gray that is used on iPhoto, keynote podium and so on. It's like the intern used they crayon box to pick a grey that looked right on their monitor and didn't look at actual RGB values and i'm sure it looks great on his monitor, just not the rest of ours. Running a late 2013 MBPr here and those two icons look awful. I checked RGB of the system prefs icon and confirmed the gray is way off. R:209 G:229 B:235. Meanwhile the iPhoto grey camera is a RGB value that is absolutely balanced with R: 201 G:201 B:201. Consistency of the Apple Icons has never been so bad or ugly! Send the designer that made these horrible icons to Samsung as a peace prize.
 
Mums

Mums

Suspended
Oct 4, 2011
667
559
Plutonius said:
It will never happen because Samsung will not change the way it operates. As shown in the Vanity Fair article awhile back, Samsung has large ethical issues with most of it's competitors (not just Apple). Samsung copies / steals, litigates, then stalls. It's how Samsung operates and, as much as I would also like to see Apple and Samsung work together, I think it's just Samsung stalling for more time.



Yes we did.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the Truth! Everyone's become so wishy-washy now-a-days. Call a spade a spade.
 
C

ChrisCW11

macrumors 65816
Jul 21, 2011
1,037
1,433
Its great that Apple has seen the light

Now its time for Samsung to play nice too.

All this aggressive posturing was going to do is hemorrhage money and ensure that Apple would become even more isolated while other companies block cross-licensing with Apple. Apple can't invent "everything" at some point they are going to have to use someone else's IP in their products in order to stay competitive, and if they anger big partners like Google, Samsung and Microsoft, those companies will block their patent portfolios from Apple, Apple will only lose in the long run.

You have to realize that Apple is alone in everything they do. They refuse to license their OS so that other companies, like Samsung, can alleviate the burden away from Apple of being the sole provider of a Mac or iDevice. Apple wants it all, they want to make their own OS, hardware, and even their own distribution channels and content platform. This ONLY works now because Apple makes highly coveted products. But Apple is travelling down such a slippery slope, and consumers are so fickle, that all it would take is one misstep for Apple to lose it all. All that would take to bring down the king is being excluded out of one critical patent that creates a new generation of social connectivity or content distribution where Apple cannot offer a solution.

On the other side, because Google licences Android, they can work with many, many partners. Even if Apple won a huge victory against Samsung and culls the ability for Samsung to compete in the phone and tablet markets, there are literally hundreds of other manufactures of Android devices that will eventually rise up to take Samsung's place. Google can lose half of its partners and still produce a highly competitive product.

Apple can't sue the world.

Steve Jobs was wrong to assume they could dominate the market, and the decision to "destroy" Google set Apple down the wrong path, it is good to see Tim Cook rise as leader and set Apple on the right path finally.

It's this kind of company that competitors should fear, a company that will rise as a leader in OPEN innovation, not a company that values isolation and protectionism with far too much money in their pockets.
 
Gary03mw

Gary03mw

macrumors regular
Mar 22, 2013
144
103
bigchrisfgb said:
It doesn't matter about Samsung's business practises, Apple gets 3rd parties to do most of it's manufacturing which has poor business practises.
Samsung are a lot more than a phone that competes with Apple. The fact that Apple and Samsung still work together on a lot of things despite patent wars between them shows that not everything gets in the way with business.
Click to expand...

It's spelled practices, and those practices should absolutely matter to companies, consumers, and government officials. At this point Samsung has been fined peanuts compared to what they have gained from copying and stealing. It's my opinion that the court system has failed here and that it may now be in Apples best interest to settle and move on. That being said, Apple should absolutely distant itself from Samsung as much as possible. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. I understand that Apple can't do everything by themselves, but any reliance on Samsung is a potential weakness. The Google/Apple maps scenario is a good example of this. Apple had to rely on Google for maps and because of this Google was able to give Android the best features and use maps as leverage. I wouldn't say that Apple has resolved this in the best fashion, but it does show that you don't want a competitor to have that kind of leverage.
 
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inscrewtable

inscrewtable

macrumors 68000
Oct 9, 2010
1,656
402
Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung Electronics CEO Oh-Hyun Kwon also reportedly attending a mediation session earlier this year...
Click to expand...

I first read that as 'meditation' session, and on second thought it probably would have been a better idea. They could have had a picture of SJ at an altar with some incense and candles to keep them focussed on their patent war reality distortion fields.
 
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