The big boys have decided that it’s time to play nice on the playground. Both Apple and Samsung have dropped a large number of their infringment claims and narrowed their complaints quite substantially. But, it’s not all fun and games; the companies are still arguing about whether or not Samsung blatantly ripped off Apple. Go figure.
From FOSS Patents:
Late on Monday by local time, Apple made a filing in its first California litigation with Samsung that offers a truly impressive narrowing of its infringement claims in that action, roughly cutting them in half, and five hours later, Samsung offered to drop five of its 12 asserted patents but argued that Apple’s case is still far too big to go to trial this summer. Apple’s filing accused Samsung of being uncooperative in the build-up to these filings, but Samsung puts all the blame on Apple and says the case still isn’t ready for a summer trial.
So there you have it. Both companies are starting to show a little maturity; however, they still pretty much hate each other. Apple still thinks Samsung ripped them off, which is hard to dispute, and Samsung is arguing that “Apple is ‘[unable] to compete in the marketplace’ and ‘instead seeking to compete through litigation,'” which is also pretty hilarious.
It’s nice to see some of the lawsuits dropped, but we’re still going to be hearing about this stuff for a while. A resolution isn’t exactly on the horizon, yet.
