European Commission says Motorola Mobility abused market positionApril 29, 2014 - 17:29 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The European Commission said Monday, April 28, that Google's Motorola Mobility abused its market position in Europe by refusing to grant crucial technology licenses to rival Apple, then suing Apple for patent infringement when the company used them anyway, the Associated Press reports. Separately, Samsung settled a case where it had tried to use its patents to block Apple from bringing a phone to market. But neither company was slapped with a fine. At a press conference, the Commission's chief competition authority, Joaquin Almunia, said that's because it can be difficult to determine when a company has the right to protect its patents — which drive innovation — and when a dominant company is wielding the power a patent gives them to stifle competition and harm consumers. "We are trying to trike the right balance" between patent holder rights and competition rules, Almunia said in Brussels, where the Commission, the European Union's executive arm, is based. "The Motorola case set up the framework we think should be followed." Almunia said the dividing line should be when patents have become an industry standard. In those cases, if someone wanting to use a patent agrees to pay "fair and reasonable terms" to use it, the holder must agree. In Motorola and other cases, disagreements about what's fair should be referred to arbitration — not used right away to block someone else from bringing a product to market. Ultimately, however, companies may still decide to sue each other over patent infringement, as Apple, Samsung and others have been doing in courts around the world for several years. Samsung agreed Tuesday not to try to seek injunctions against competitors for five years in Europe, and to submit future disagreements to arbitration along the lines Almunia suggested. Google is in the process of selling Motorola to China's Lenovo. Related links: Top stories Yerevan will host the 2024 edition of the World Congress On Information Technology (WCIT). Rustam Badasyan said due to the lack of such regulation, the state budget is deprived of VAT revenues. Krisp’s smart noise suppression tech silences ambient sounds and isolates your voice for calls. Gurgen Khachatryan claimed that the "illegalities have been taking place in 2020." Partner news Most popular in the section | The Power of One Dram to benefit Road of Life charity The companies inform that the May beneficiary of The Power of One Dram is the “Road of Life” charitable organization. Kazakhstan welcomes Yerevan, Baku’s agreement to meet in Almaty Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has welcomed the agreement of Baku and Yerevan to hold negotiations in Almaty. Armenia offers to temporarily host, preserve Gaza manuscripts The Armenian Foreign Minister has said Yerevan is ready to help preserve manuscripts from the conflict zone in Gaza. Aliyev says no need for mediators in Armenia-Azerbaijan process Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev believes that Baku and Yerevan do not mediators in the process of normalizing relations. |