Samsung Ready To Turn Up The Heat In Patent War With Apple

According to a report published by Associated Press (AP), Samsung has decided to take a much bolder stance in the ongoing patent war with Apple, which the company claims, has been “free riding” on its patented wireless technologies. In a statement, Lee Younghee, head of global marketing for Samsung mobile communications, said: “We’ll be pursuing our rights for this in a more aggressive way from now on,”. Lee also suggested that Samsung has been relatively “passive” in the dispute so far out of respect for the fact that Apple and Samsung have a close relationship for component supplies.

Citing from the source:

Lee, a senior vice president at Samsung, did not say what form the South Korean company’s stronger stance would take or if there would be more lawsuits. But her remarks suggest a definite change in tone. She described its previous approach as “passive. Lee said that Samsung has kept that relationship in mind amid the dispute with the Cupertino, California-based company, and has largely been pulling its punches.

“We’ve been quite respectful and also passive in a way” in consideration of those links, Lee said during the interview in her office at Samsung’s headquarters building in southern Seoul. “However, we shouldn’t be … anymore.

In response, Apple’s spokesman Steve Park said to the AP.

“It is no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging. This kind of blatant copying is wrong and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”

It all started back in April when Apple sued Samsung for the first time in U.S. alleging that the product design and packaging of Samsung’s Galaxy devices copy the iPhone and iPad. In response, Samsung began to accuse Apple of violating its intellectual property. Today, the big fight has spread to 10 countries including the U.S., South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands and Australia.