Samsung’s retreat in Europe signals strategic turnaround

Samsung Electronics has dropped its request for a ban on the sale of a number of Apple’s smartphones and tablet computers in Europe, signaling it may be gearing toward a new strategy in the high-profile patent war with the iPhone maker.

Samsung spokespeople said on Tuesday that the company has abandoned the request to “compete with actual products, and not with litigation.” Samsung also said it has acted “in the interest of protecting consumer choice.”

The move came a day after a U.S. federal judge rejected a request from Apple for an injunction to block the sales of over two dozen Samsung devices. The judge said that Apple has failed to establish that consumer demand for Samsung products was driven by the technology Samsung stole from Apple. This same judge also ruled earlier that the damages awarded against Samsung by a U.S. jury for patent infringement may have to be lowered.

Given these latest developments, industry watchers believe Samsung may have decided to approach the issue from a new angle based on the analysis that it may lose consumer loyalty should it continue to push for a sales ban against Apple.

Samsung has been seeking injunctions in several countries, including the U.K., France, Germany and Italy, based on its claims that Apple has infringed on its patents.

In August, a U.S. jury issued a verdict in favor of Apple, saying Apple had not infringed on Samsung’s patents. Instead, the jury ruled for Samsung to pay $1.05 billion to compensate Apple for “willingly” infringing the California-based firm’s patents.

But in Europe, the rulings have been divided, with a London court in favor of Samsung, while a court in Düsseldorf ruled that Samsung could not sell one of its Galaxy tablet devices in Germany because its appearance too closely resembled Apple’s tablet computer, the iPad 2.

Analysts believe the European Commission also may have played a part in Samsung’s latest decision to withdraw the sales ban request.

The commission in January opened a formal antitrust investigation into Samsung’s licensing terms for patents covering wireless technologies.

“The scope of what was withdrawn precisely matches the area in which the European Commission has been investigating,” Florian Müller, a patent consultant in Germering, Germany, told The New York Times. “It’s not just that the plot is thickening; in my view, there can be no other plausible view than that there is pressure from Brussels.”

From the start, the commission had been concerned that patent holders such as Samsung would try to abuse essential technology, such as Samsung’s “standard essential patents,” without which phones cannot properly function.

“Regulators have been saying, if the patent holders try to abuse these patents, then they are going to get in trouble,” Müller said.

Samsung declined to directly comment, but in a statement it said that it “remains committed to licensing our technologies on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms, and we strongly believe it is better when companies compete fairly in the marketplace, rather than in court.”

Both Samsung and Apple have so far ruled out the possibility of a settlement out of court.

But last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook, known for his pragmatic tendencies, told Bloomberg BusinessWeek that he hopes the Samsung litigation “works out over time.”

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)