“A couple of court decisions announced in Seoul, South Korea, this morning indicate that South Korea has decided to become a rogue state in connection with standard-essential patents, essentially telling foreign companies that in order to sell their technology products to the country’s 50-million population, they must bow to extortion by Samsung and LG,” Florian Mueller writes for FOSS Patents.
“This is highly problematic and will have diplomatic repercussions,” Mueller writes. “The victims of such abuse will be companies from the United States, Europe and Japan, and increasingly also Chinese companies. I don’t know what Apple is going to do, but it would make sense to talk to both U.S. presidential candidates at the earliest opportunity.”
Mueller writes, “What appears at first sight to be a mixed ruling and will be subject to a de novo (from scratch) review by an appeals court is actually a declaration of a trade war. It would mean that foreign companies would either have to bow to Samsung’s and LG’s demands and, among other things, give up their own non-standard-essential intellectual property or stop selling in Korea. If I were Apple, I would defend myself vigorously and, if necessary, write off the Korean market until this issue is resolved through bilateral U.S.-Korea talks or at the level of the World Trade Organization.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: As expected: Samsung’s criminal leadership pretty much owns South Korea.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Jax44” for the heads up.]
Related article:
South Korean court delivers split decision in Apple v. Samsung patent battle – August 24, 2012
Apple, you might want to spend the bulk of your time with Mr. Romney.
If Sam Korea doesn’t want to play fair, the U.S. should pull its troops out as an experiment to see how many minutes they last.
Romney is all talk. No meat!
You did not just say this? Come on man there is a lot more to US bases in SK than you let on.
The US needs those bases there just as much as they do.
The issue is the strength of South Korea as a whole and the huge amount of work South Korean companies provide for Americans. Hyundai, Kia, Samsung just to name 3 have huge footprints in the US economy.
There are far more important things than Apple vs Samsung.
But this isn’t (just) about Samesung VS Apple (although that court case brought it to the surface)
It is about leveraging standards essential patents. You simply can’t allow companies to leverage (after the fact) patents they agreed to reasonably license (FOSS) in order to be a part of a “standard” required to operate.
oops FRAND not FOSS
Who pays to defend these foreign companies? the American middle class! Romney will keep passing that on to the working people of this country while his kind make jobs overseas, and pay pennies on the dollar in taxes!
If Romney and his fiscal aristocratic class want to protect those (their?) foreign interests maybe they should at least pay enough to cover the cost of that protection!
@greg,
Where did you get your higher education? Based on your ideas, you have a pretty good case for getting your money back! Not one single thing you wrote makes any sense. Try again.
+1
Greg, please renounce your citizenship and move to a different country.
Greg : please don’t try to confuse an iPad with fighting communism. Consumer products is one thing. Fighting the bad guys is another thing. As much as we all enjoy our Apple stuff it pales in comparison when speaking about national defense of a country. Please keep things in perspective. And move to North Korea you dumb ass!
Let’s be blatant here. The Neo-Conservative corrupted Republican Party consistently has this strategy in mind:
Neo-Feudalism. I call it ‘Kill the poor. Feed the rich’. And if you’re the middle class, you’re the worker peasants. Have fun with that.
And no, the loony left is just as nuts with their own ‘Kill the rich. Feed the poor.’
Sane moderation cures all political ills. Sadly, the USA has run out of that medication. 😛
only one thing slower than the justice system: diplomacy.
Crying over spilled milk as Samsung can easily claim the same whenever they lose a case in other jurisdictions around the world.
Apple can look after itself without Government intervention as the US Government is not known to be righteous either. Heck if government had an honest bow in it’s body, Casino’s would not exist. Money follows no rules and more of it is made by breaking the rules.
No, they can’t “easily claim the same” because Apple is not asserting FRAND patents against Samsung.
South Korea’s desire for economic extortion will lead to economic isolation and economic implosion. I suspect that South Korean government officials have been eating too much Kim Jong-il branded kimchi.
Not a problem. This is an easy fix with about $120 billion of cash. Look at their key source products and materials. Then buy the source, the inventory, control the source of the manufacturing of the device you want to shut down.
That will end this crap. Crush their life lines until they stop! Man up Tim Cook! Think, “What would Steve Jobs do?” Then execute it!!!
OK for the last time! Apple is a PUBLIC company hence the cash you speak of cannot be spent like a drunken sailor by Cook. The Board of Directors needs to always look at any expenditure as one that provides a real and measurable ROI for the shareholders and what you propose is hog wash!
As well, there are a lot of private companies that are worth trillions of dollars that no one knows about but who play ball with Samsung via Samsung Group and ball they will play if Apple even tried to impose carnage in the manufacturing or supply chain sector.
ROI. What do you think the ROI would be to cut off or even slow down the only real rip off device cutting into the sale of 50% of your existing sales? These sub assemblies are clearly stamped on almost every soldered in part on the board. Several of these sub assembled items maybe common to what Apple already uses. Control the flow of the key chemical, chip, power control device, etc. … Buy the next 3 years of their production and cut them off.
You don’t need to payoff anyone of or beg a judge to be allowed to sell something you have full rights too. Over there and in China, power is strength and you don’t gain respect begging for what is already yours.
Silliness. Apple cannot cut off Samsung at the knees as Samsung will fight back with all of it’s might and that is not a fight Apple can win. Samsung Group is too big to try and strong arm them.
As well, Apple needs to firm up agreements with other supliers before they can devest themselves from using quality Samsung parts.
Let’s see how well things go with the new iPhone displays that will be made by Sharp and LG. Apple cannot afford a Faux Pas as Android will pounce like never before.
What would Steve Jobs do? I think he would stop selling anything Apple in Korea AFTER he consults with Obama and gets the promise that all Samsung stuff is banned in the US.
In addition, Obama can then start offering gifts to N. Korea like nuclear power technology and long range cruise missiles.
heheheheheheheheheh. Remember, never piss off somebody a whole lot bigger than you.
Ohbummer can’t even come up with good faked birth certificate.
He’ll do exactly the following:… …. nothing!
do you know where YOUR birth certificate is? Go look for it…
Financing multiple competitive component factories outside Korea would work a lot faster than any diplomacy. Tim Cook is the master of the supply chain, this should play to his strengths.
C’mon, what else is Apple going to do with $100 Billion in the bank?
Koreans cheat, lies, can’t trust them
No doubt the feeling is mutual!
eat shit and die pat
Florian Mueller really is the only cool guy in this game. Is there anybody else who can explain these battles like him? Let’s praise him for a while!
I agree. I’ve grown to be a big fan of his.
yes agree, i read his stuff regularly.
Yes there are multiple sites on the internet where people blog incorrect information and make wild claims that do not come true. Mueller is not alone!
Go stick a fork up your ass, you stupid Samnsung-paid troll.
Yes, but we did not discover during this recent trial that Florian is a paid blogger? His arguments appear reasoned, but he is paid by Apple.
I think you are getting the front and back of the cart mixed up. Florian gets paid by companies but trolling is not part of his work.
Just a thought.
Oracle, he was hired by Oracle as a consultant. Sadly Oracle won nothing from Google even tho they proved that Google stole their patented work.
He’s great and I like him too- only problem is he got caught taking money from Oracle so his credibility as non-partisan is shot.
Suk koc
Family is everything in Korea, so as long as the people in power at Samsung have the family names, Kim, Sung and Park, they can break any law they want, since 90% of the population is named Kim, Sung or Park, including the judges and the politicians.
Too much inbreeding? Are you saying that Koreans are swimming in the shallow end of the gene pool?
call me old fashioned but I just don’t appreciate any culture that commonly eats dogs. I like dogs- some dogs I like more than some people. They’re mans best friend. I don’t think they should be eaten. That’s just my opinion tho…
When you’re really hungry you will be amazed what you will eat. The only food I found wholly disgusting was seal. Monkey meat was excellent. I never knowing had dog although I visited several Korean villages. Some colleagues praised cat meat but I doubt that they were describing eating pussy.
That’s pretty close, the family name and blood line are one of the most important things in Korea. The 5 most common names in Korea are Kim(김) Lee(이) Park (박) Choi (최)’and Jeong (정) in that order. Totally about 64% of the population Sung (성) is not a common name in fact it actually means family name. These names are so common because these were some of largest clans from Korean history so it’s not inbreeding even though it looks liked it. Many people share these family names but have no close family relationship
@lordthree what culture are you from? What meats do you eat?
Apple’s steps toward domination of Samsung and LG
Step 1: Rid themselves of any partnerships/reliance on Samsung and the South Korean government. If that means spending $25 billion to build fresh in countries such as China, Brazil, India or (gasp) the United States, then do it.
Step 2: Lead large-scale marketing campaign of companies outside of South Korea who rely on FRAND patents to build their products. South Korea is a very big tech market to sell to, but they steal just as much in ill-gotten market share throughout the rest of the world. Other nations with less bought-and-sold courts will not side with Samsung on FRAND lawsuits.
Step 3: Keep innovating. At some point, South Korea will find itself on a technological island and the bad press will hurt their international sales.
I understand that Step 1 will take time, but goodness I sure hope Apple has already been working on this for a couple of years. The rest of the tech buying population needs to wake up and see that they are supporting thieves with their purchases (purchases that, ever so ironically, are the closest thing to Apple products on the market and yet the Apple-haters love them the most. Odd.)
Perhaps if this does become a trade war Congress will help Apple with measures to move manufacturing back to the States.
Well spoken. I think Korea is already on a technology island. Many old technologies still find wide usage here. The government does a lot to keep Koreans isolated from the outside. Korean search engines, Korean email accounts, Korean games, korean social networks, korean chat clients and so. Most Koreans don’t use google maps or google earth. They have their own mapping sites and applications. Some big names for Korean alternatives include Daum, Naver, Hanmail and, Nate(nateon).
Most of these things cannot be used my non-Koreans because they have register using what equates to their social security number. This number also includes the persons Date of Birth which is often used to lock underage people out of certain sites. Often this is done so for online gaming more than porn. If a foreigner does have a number because of a visa they can register. But it’s often not easy and it’s not because of the language barrier.
There is a Korean alternative or copy for almost everything technology. Koreans mostly use these and rarely stray outside this barrier. These alternatives also serve as a great wow to control and sanitize information. Korean netizens do a good job of trying to control information on the net and censor potentially damning information or opinions if you buy technology in Korea it’s often locked into Korean and cannot be changed out. If that same item was bought in the US or somewhere else you can change between multiple languages and is compatible is more software.
Don’t forget the ultimate enabling company for Samsung is Google. ‘Do no evil’ my ass. Google sold out to the Koreans given them a lions share of the profits and causing billions of dollars of potential sales lost to the American economy.
at the end of the day, as consumers, we can send a huge message by just not purchasing samsung products and encouraging friends and family not to. that’s a whole lot more effective than waiting for government to do it all for us.
You are assuming that consumers side with Apple? Think again as consumers do not give a cat’s meow about this as the driving force behind a consumer’s decision to buy or not to buy a product is price and not a company’s politics. Daimler put Chrysler into bankruptcy and went back to Germany yet Americans still loves to buy Benz’s.
Well, a simple solution. Just let South Korea get a notice to begin handling the North Korean border. Then let North Korea know that South Korean judges decided to play to Samsung and if they wanted they could speak to Samsuung directly in Seoul. Maybe they needed a change in leadership.
Why should the United States stick to small details like protecting their patent system and courts.
Oh – same tactics as North Korea.
Apple is already ridding themselves of Google…Took time but was inevitable. I can see them slowly moving away from samsung as well for parts. They could make their own manufacturing plant in other countries or they could go with LG.
If they win this case I think their next step should be to leave them.. not only did you just slam them in the mobile department but now you are taking away a good chunk of profit they once had.
If only Apple could use Intel to cut into Samsung’s production. Yet, Intel would also compete with Apple.
steve jobs thermonuclear war just started.
In the end you have build it yourself, it may a little cost a more, but the security is there, most of the components are made by machine which means you can make and then ship anywhere you need to. It’s like making your own operating system, chips, flash memory and screens are becoming too important to leave to chance or some offshore company.
It’s time for Apple to look to more security instead of margins, half of Apple current problems from a patent, design, standpoint would not happen in the US or Europe, instead of having 117 billion, having 80 billion and being home may have to do the lack of security is getting out of hand.
No one really knows how big Samsung is (because as a family run business with only portions publicly listed it can keep it’s multitude of divisions secret) but estimates say it controls 20% of Korea’s entire GDP.
Samsung is linked to every aspect of Korea’s employment, government, policies. Government officials like courts etc don’t dare to fart without Samsung’s approval so it was foregone conclusion how the rulings would go.
meanwhile U.S judges say Apple lawyers are smoking crack in court… or lke Judge Posner after ruling against apple publicly declare “I don’t believe in software patents”.
Huge numbers of americans (go read blog post comments) plus many American tech writers and bloggists like those in ZDnet attack apple at very oppourtunity and praise Samsung (android) whenever they win a court battle. (some say they don’t support Apple because apple does not support the american worker so they buy .. Samsung !)
Large numbes of american consumers kept ignorant partly by the indifferent mainstream press (newspapers, TV) happily buy Samsung products WHILE complaining “why is the economy so bad?”.
I’m an apple fan but Samsung deserves to win because it’s fighting with everything it’s got with no gloves on and with the full support of it’s citizens, it’s government, it’s courts.
As for Apple getting political help…. Google spends TEN times more money in lobbying. ( LOL. Ask yourself do U.S politicians care about justice or money… )
http://9to5mac.com/2012/07/23/report-apple-barely-spends-500k-lobbying-in-q2-while-google-soars-past-5m/
for more of my (pessimistic) assesments on apple’s lawsuits my other comment post on MDN ..
Those $1,200 per hour lawyers really paid off.