Samsung has reportedly dropped its patent lawsuits against Apple in Europe, particularly in U.K., France, Germany, Italy, and Netherlands. The South Korean technology giant confirmed to The Verge today saying, “Samsung remains committed to licensing our technologies on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, and we strongly believe it is better when companies compete fairly in the marketplace, rather than in court. In this spirit, Samsung has decided to withdraw our injunction requests against Apple on the basis of our standard essential patents pending in European courts, in the interest of protecting consumer choice.”
The Verge points out that it is still unclear whether Samsung was forced to drop its lawsuits against Apple or that the two tech giants actually signed an agreement concerning the case. Under EU law, companies are required to license patents on a fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) basis. Samsung previously declared that Apple infringed some of its patents that are deemed essential to wireless technology. Apple’s response was that Samsung did not license the said patents under the principle of FRAND. Meanwhile, the battle continues in the U.S.