German Court Rules in Favor of Apple in 3G/UMTS Samsung Lawsuit

One down and approximately 30 more to go worldwide and 6 more in Germany in the epic patent battle between Apple and Samsung.  On Friday, the Mannheim Regional Court rejected one of Samsung’s lawsuits against Apple.  The suit alleged that Apple infringed upon Samsung’s patent regarding the 3G/UMTS wireless telecommunications standard.  The Court did not provide an explanation as to why the lawsuit was rejected.  FOSS Patents speculates that there are two possible reasons that the Court rejected the lawsuit:

…either Apple’s products weren’t deemed to infringe on the patent in a technical sense or the court believes Samsung’s rights are exhausted and Apple has, by extension, a license. If the reason for the rejection was technical non-infringement, Samsung’s other assertions of 3G/UMTS patents in Germany could still succeed. However, if the reason was patent exhaustion, all but one of the four remaining Samsung lawsuits in Germany (one over two patents unrelated to 3G, including a smiley input patent) would likely be thrown out as well. While a finding of patent exhaustion can depend on technical details that vary from patent to patent, and from product to product, I haven’t seen any indication that the related functionality is implemented by Apple itself as opposed to the baseband chips Apple incorporates into its products.

In other words, this ruling could have negative repercussions on Samsung’s other lawsuits.  With so much on the line, there is little doubt that Samsung will appeal the Court’s decision.  And why not?  It is not like Samsung’s lawyers have anything else to do.