Apple Inc (AAPL) and Samsung Pacts To Terminate Lawsuits Outside U.S.

In a bid to curtail the growing legal entangles that intensified in the last few years, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung have chosen to wrap up their legal suits in all countries except the United States. The two firms have been chained into a series of legal cases relating to a number of patent infringement cases in nine countries which includes South Korea, Germany, UK and Japan but excludes the United States. However, the two companies have now issued a joint statement stating that they have agreed to close legal suits outside the U.S. and that their agreement does not include any licensing arrangements, BBC has reported.

The first legal attack was made by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) on Samsung in 2011 in the U.S. The iPhone maker claimed that the South Korean company infringed upon a number of its features, which are adopted in Samsung’s Galaxy phones and tablets. In response to Samsung also sued Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in various countries for copying some of the features like synchronization of photos, videos and music files with multiple devices and the process of capturing and sending video over the internet. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) defended these cases by filing counter claims against all lawsuits, which stand to be withdrawn now.

However, the U.S. pie is too big to be left by each company as they will continue to pursue their present cases in the U.S. So far, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has secured the decision of two cases in its favor, which includes the court’s recent decision in May that ordered Samsung to pay $119.6 million to Apple. However, Apple was also found guilty of copying Samsung’s features and was asked to pay $158,000 in damages. Other than this, a separate jury had ruled a case against Samsung and had ordered it to pay nearly $1.05 billion to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) for infringing the latter’s intellectual property, but the case is still attacked by Samsung.

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