In In an interview, Lee Younghee, a senior vice president and the head of global marketing at Samsung, has been quoted as saying that henceforth the company will take a bolder stance in its patent battle with smartphone and tablet rival Apple. Samsung is of the view that Apple has been "free riding" on its patented wireless technologies. "We'll be pursuing our rights for this in a more aggressive way from now on," Lee Younghee said.
Lee has not revealed what form the South Korean company's stronger stance would take or if there would be more lawsuits. But her remarks do signify a new escalation in the companys battle with Apple. She described Samsungs previous approach as being "passive." Apple has filed in multiple countries including Germany where the court ruled against Samsung and banned the direct sale new Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the country.
It is German courts unexpected decision of banning the Galaxy Tab 10.1 that resulted in a change of stance at Samsung. That new stance is one of anger. Samsung is now no longer ready to be so quiet. The company has already filed its own lawsuits against Apple claiming they are infringing on patents that they hold in wireless technology. The legal battle has spread to 10 countries from the USA to Australia and, of course, Germany.
The battle between the two companies continues to be fraught with complexity, because along with being competitors, Samsung and Apple also have a close business relationship. Samsung supplied Apple with about $5.7 billion in components last year, some 4 percent of Samsung's total sales. Apple's portion grew to 5.8 percent of Samsung's sales in the first quarter, driven by booming iPad and iPhone sales, which Samsung supplies chips for, along with Japan's Toshiba.
Apple has reacted to Lee Younghees comments by reiterating its claim Samsung has violated its intellectual property. Apple claims that it is no coincidence that Samsungs latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging. Samsung still trails badly in tablet sales, where Apple racked up 14 million iPad sales in the first half, versus analysts' sales estimates of about 7.5 million Samsung tablet products for all of 2011. The two companies will square off in a more significant U.S. court hearing next month about an injunction case.
Some analysts are of the opinion that the most likely outcome of the long drawn battle over intellectual property is an out of court settlement between the two companies.
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