FRAND Wins One

A Dutch court Wednesday told Samsung it couldn’t have an injunction against Apple’s iPhone 4s based on patents it pledged to ETSI and 3G/UMTS standards. Not when Apple is willing to license them on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. It especially can’t have an injunction or otherwise call Apple to account because it’s already getting paid by Qualcomm for the patents; Apple’s just buying covered baseband chips from Qualcomm; it’s covered by extension. Samsung’s trick of terminating its Qualcomm agreement as far as Apple goes didn’t work in Holland because the widgetry was irrevocably pledged to ETSI.

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