The South Korean tech giant loses $1 billion market value on Monday after the US decision to veto an import ban on some Apple products. Obama’s surprise veto sparked concerns in Seoul over Samsung patent rights.
The presidential veto was issued in response to
June’s ruling by the US International Trade Commission (ITC) that
approved Samsung’s request to ban older iPhones and iPads, on
which Apple infringed Samsung’s patents. That order affected only
AT&T iPhone models that included iPhones prior to the iPhone
4S that was released in US in November 2011, as well as
3G-enabled versions of the iPad 1 and 2, also released in 2011.
The ban was supposed to come into effect this week.
After the veto the South Korean government said on Monday
it will closely watch an ITC decision on Friday, when the
trade body is expected to decide on a potential ban of certain
Samsung Galaxy mobile products from the US following an Apple
complaint alleging patent violation, the WSJ reports.
"We hope to see a fair and reasonable decision on the
matter," the newspaper quotes the government statement.
The South Korean government's statement suggests the legal
dispute between the two technology giants could escalate into a
political issue depending on the outcome of the ITC's decision,
according to the WSJ article.
Obama's veto is likely to ease the intensity of patent wars, the
WSJ says. The newspaper notes that patent chicanery has increased
dramatically in recent years: patent lawsuits in the US in 2012
have increased by 30% to 5189, according to PwC data.
Apple and Samsung are getting tougher on each other as they
compete for a share of the global smartphone market,
business daily Vedomosti reports. The companies are
involved in legal argument in dozens countries. The South Korean
company controls almost twice the market share in terms of sales of
smartphones - 32% vs.14% for Apple.