Apple Wins Lawsuit in South Korea - Analyst Blog
13 December 2013 - 6:00AM
Zacks
Apple (AAPL) won a
decisive victory against Samsung in South Korea, after the Seoul
Central District Court dismissed a patent infringement lawsuit
filed by the latter. The court ruled that Apple’s iPhone 4S, iPhone
5 and iPad 2 did not violate Samsung’s three mobile patents.
This is the third consecutive win for Apple against Samsung within
a short span of time. In November, a U.S. jury ordered the South
Korean company to pay $290.0 million as damages to the iPhone
maker.
In a separate case, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that Judge Lucy
Koh should reconsider Apple’s request for a U.S. ban on 26 Samsung
products that were found guilty of infringing patents. The appeals
court ruled that out of the six infringed patents, three qualified
for calling a ban on Samsung products.
Samsung filed the case in Mar 2012 in Seoul’s District Court,
alleging that Apple has violated its intellectual property related
to short message services in smartphones and tablets. The company
demanded Won 100 million as fine and also requested the court to
ban of six Apple products.
However, the court found that one of the allegedly violated patents
was not at all used by Apple in any of its devices, while the other
two can be developed easily from other inventions. The court
scrapped Samsung’s ban request and the compensation claim.
We believe that this is a sound victory for Apple in Samsung’s own
backyard. To date, Apple had a mixed luck in this Seoul court,
where it was fined Won 40 million in 2012, for violating Samsung’s
two patents related to wireless technology.
In the same case, the court fined Samsung Won 25 million for
infringing patent related to the bouncing-back function, used at
the time of navigating electronic documents.
Apple has won more than $900.0 million in damages from Samsung.
However, the legal fight between the two companies does not end
here, as Samsung plans to challenge the U.S. jury’s retrial
verdict. Moreover, both are scheduled to meet in court in Mar 2014
in a new trial for examining more recent smartphones including
iPhone 5 and Galaxy S3.
Although these are great moral victories for Apple, they do not
provide significant competitive benefit apart from the penalty. The
legal victories are related to products that Samsung does not sell
anymore.
Apple is facing significant competition in most of the markets from
Google’s (GOOG) Android operating
system. Moreover, intensifying competition from low-cost
smartphones and tablets produced by Samsung, HTC, LG, Huawei and
Amazon (AMZN) remains a concern.
Nevertheless, we believe that the refreshed product line-up will
boost top-line growth in the near term. Additionally, the recent
partnership with China Mobile (CHL) is expected to
boost Apple’s market share in China. Further, shareholder-friendly
moves such as higher dividend payment and expanded share buybacks
are expected to drive the stock, going forward.
Currently, Apple has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
APPLE INC (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report
AMAZON.COM INC (AMZN): Free Stock Analysis Report
CHINA MOBLE-ADR (CHL): Free Stock Analysis Report
GOOGLE INC-CL A (GOOG): Free Stock Analysis Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Zacks Investment Research
China Mobile (NYSE:CHL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2024 to Oct 2024
China Mobile (NYSE:CHL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Oct 2023 to Oct 2024
Real-Time news about China Mobile Limited (New York Stock Exchange): 0 recent articles
More China Mobile News Articles