Apple offered Samsung unfair deal: Groklaw

A U.S. legal news provider revealed an allegation that Apple Inc. made an unfair licensing offer to Samsung Electronics over patent payments in October 2010.

Apple had offered Samsung an additional 20 percent discount for the Korean smartphone manufacturer’s usage of Apple’s licenses, including Windows phones and tablets, under the scenario of a cross license deal, Groklaw said in its recent report.

The failed offer was based on the U.S. firm’s alleged intention to pressure Samsung to scrap its use of Google’s Android platform, it claimed.

Groklaw said that Apple’s offer seems designed to favor making Windows phones instead of Android, since that would only cost them $9 per phone instead of $24, making it appear that Android is being targeted for destruction in the marketplace, which indeed matches Steve Jobs’ threat to destroy Android.

“Samsung would only pay $9 per Windows phone to Apple (still $3 more than the $6 rate Apple and Microsoft are whining to regulators about ...) but $24 per unit for Android devices. Does that look even plausibly fair?”

It argued that Samsung’s patents gave it a 20 percent discount, plus it could get an additional 40 percent discount if it made Windows phones or tablets, since Windows has an Apple license, according to Apple.

And an “additional 20 percent” if the phone used a QWERTY keyboard instead of touch. So, Samsung would receive 80 percent off if it sold that kind of a Windows phone, according to Groklaw.

Fairness has come under spotlight over the recent verdict on the patent lawsuit between Samsung Electronics and Apple.

Local market observers including some analysts remained cynical over the situation that Apple won a billion dollars, after a jury ruled that Samsung had copied a handful of features from the iPhone.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)