“Last week I asked: ‘Are U.S. and EU antitrust enforcers taking a rather soft line on standard-essential patent issues?’ Based on a Samsung filing with the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that entered the public record yesterday, I must answer this question with a resounding ‘Yes!’ as far as the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) is concerned,” Florian Müller writes for FOSS Patents.
“Basically, Samsung’s filing makes clear that it seeks to benefit from reverse protectionism in which I believe the U.S. government is engaging for geopolitical reasons that have nothing to do with Apple, phones, tablets, or patents,” Müller writes. “Only two weeks have passed since the DoJ announced the closing of its investigation of Samsung’s use of FRAND-pledged standard-essential patents (SEPs) against Apple, arguing that ‘[a]s a result of the [Obama Administration’s veto of an import ban Samsung won last year], the Antitrust Division has determined that no further action is required at this time.’ The fundamental importance of the underlying issue to industry would have been enough of a reason to penalize Samsung even for a failed attempt to win an import ban over a SEP. The European Commission has not closed the Samsung investigation yet even though Samsung also failed with its related attempts in multiple European countries. The U.S. government, however, apparently wanted to avoid the impression of dual punishment (veto plus antitrust decision).”
“Even on that basis, it was just totally premature to ‘close’ the investigation (except for keeping the door open very slightly by promising to continue to monitor the situation) without remedies of any kind,” Müller writes. “If this was about SEPs as opposed to foreign policy, the DoJ would have expected at a very minimum that Samsung withdraw all of its still-pending requests for injunctive relief against Apple over U.S. SEPs. ”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, the U.S. DOJ is plainly inept.
Gotta do what they can to keep all those lawyers and judges working. What else?
Is anyone surprised? Google owns the entire DOJ.
“Again, the U.S. DOJ is plainly inept.”
No, it’s plainly bought and paid for.
Yo! Big Momma is in Da House yo!
Now listen to me bitches. No use Apple hiding under Big Momma’s voluminous skirt. They just scared that the Big Bad Wolf is gonna eat them up is all. Well fuck me blind you either stand on your own two feet or you can sit your ass down and cry Uncle motherfucker. No use hiding under Big Momma’s skirt now bitches. You all grown up now bitches.
and all this time I had thought William F. Buckley was dead.
If that’s representative a stake through the heart would be advised
The US can learn a lot from the EU on this. US is basically being bullied into such decisions by foreign companies such as Samdung crying false innuendo. Look for Samdung to jack this up a notch now they are emboldened.
By bullied, you mean bought.
They need to rename it the Department of Injustice.
Got all to do with political and economic matters in South East Asia and US concerns about keeping South Korea onside.
No, the Department of Bribes…no, wait! That would be “campaign contributions”.
I prefer Department Of Jackasses
I’ve always felt that it must be a geopolitical issue, since Samsung is essentially a chaebol, responsible for employing a large percentage of its country’s workforce.
Here’s a question? Who needs who more? The US or South Korea.
Also in this picture is China, which is going to steal some of Korea’s thunder in the smartphone wars but is also greatly responsible for North Korea’s situation as it is.
The US doesn’t need to appease Korea. After all, it was Korea who asked the US to suspend the disbanding of the Combined Forces Command in Korea until 2015. Of course, we want to be friends with Korea, but we shouldn’t sacrifice principles. We should also be friends with Japan, which is more of a natural ally for companies like Apple.
I believe the DoJ is hoping to follow that dictum from Thomas Jefferson, I believe, “that government governs best that governs least.”
I believe the DoJ is following the advice of P.T. Barnum: “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
Yo-yo wants to return to the wild west days of rampant Republicanism…..
Racializing and politicizing every pinhead from the House of UN-American Activities to the KKK T-Party-ers.
Dats why we gonna return to the 5’Rs, reading, writing, arithmetic, criminal-assault and Republicanism.
Two guns for every REAL-man, woman and child will not save you from the Big Bad Wolf when Big Mama’s voluminous skirt, other pretences of justice and civilization are ripped away.
There is nothing so powerful as a limited vocabulary? Whether bully or dog breeder your ‘shoot-out’ mentality is disappointing even for America.
It’s dark under these voluminous skirts, “Hey did you just bump me, Yo-yo-man”
#@@^&%**@##
You know MDN, take the DOJ part out of your feedback sentence and you’ll have the bigger picture.