Ahead of formal settlement negotiations next month, Apple has reiterated its demands for an anti-cloning provision in any potential agreement with Samsung. Litigation analyst Florian Mueller suggests Apple’s insistence may be a “dealbreaker” that puts the patent-infringement lawsuit back on track for a formal trial, though the company successfully pushed HTC to sign off on such provisions as part of a settlement in a separate dispute.
“But no matter how much Samsung may hate the notion of an anti-cloning provision (it’s definitely at odds with the strategy that enabled Samsung to become the global market leader in smartphones), it’s a safe assumption that a deal will only come into being if Samsung accepts this,” Mueller writes.
Apple’s attorneys maintain that any previous talks with Samsung have “consistently included limits to both the scope of any license and a prohibition against cloning Apple products.” The legal team denies Samsung’s suggestion that settlement offers have already been made without such provisions.
Apple CEO Tim Cook is scheduled to meet with Samsung CEO Oh-Hyun Kwon sometime around February 19, however failure to reach an agreement will effectively initiate the smartphone patent trial the following March.
