2013 is going to be a busy year for Samsung legal. The list of investigations and litigation, pending and in progress, facing the company is a long one, and growing longer by the day.

The U.S. International Trade Commission said Thursday that it’s agreed to investigate Samsung for possible trade violations, following a complaint by Ericsson. The network equipment manufacturer alleges that Samsung has infringed a number of its mobile technology patents by continuing to sell a number of smartphones, tablets and TVs without a proper patent-licensing agreement. And it wants the ITC to ban their importation.

Ericsson’s complaint with the ITC against Samsung is a tit-for-tat response to a similar complaint brought against it by the Korean company late last year. In it, Samsung argued that some of Ericsson’s telecommunications network equipment violate a handful of Samsung patents.

It’s worth noting that most of the patents at issue in this spat are standard essential ones, which their holders are obligated to license under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. Both Ericsson and Samsung allege one another have refused to do so. And those allegations come at a time of increased regulatory scrutiny of standard essential patents. Indeed, in its recent consent decree with Google, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission told Google that it cannot seek to ban competing products using patents it licensed under a FRAND agreement.

Categorised as: Chief Digital Officer | Digital Media | Feedster

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