Apple’s patent battle against Samsung probably hasn’t gone as well as the company had hoped. Sure, Apple won big last summer when a jury awarded it a $1 billion patent verdict against its rival, but things have been going downhill ever since. Among other things, Apple has seen its patent verdict cut nearly in half, it has failed to get import bans on key Samsung products and it even faces an import ban of its own on older iPhone and iPad models. And as Bloomberg notes, the next week could really be make or break for Apple’s patent crusade against Samsung since it will face an import ban on some of its devices unless the Obama administration intervenes by the end of Friday and because it will present its arguments to an appeals court next week to make the case for banning Samsung products.
Depending on how things go, Bloomberg says that the next week has the potential to shift the balance of power in the long-running dispute between the two companies and could provide the framework for an eventual settlement between them.
“It is a natural point in the process to consider settlement,” Nick Rodelli, head of Legal Edge Research at the Center for Financial Research and Analysis, tells Bloomberg. “If that doesn’t happen, then bargaining positions could change very abruptly based on what happens in litigation, which is inherently unpredictable.”
Of course, many legal observers have been expecting Apple and Samsung to hammer out a settlement for months now and the patent battle between the two smartphone vendors has only dragged on. And given that the two companies are now the only two consistently profitable smartphone vendors, they both seem to have enough resources to keep the fight going for a while longer still.
