∞ Samsung accuses Apple of 'free riding' on its wireless technologies

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The war of words between Apple and Samsung is heating up again.

In an interview with AP, Lee Younghee, Samsung’s head of global marketing for mobile communications, accused Apple of “free riding” on its patented wireless technologies. Lee also said that Samsung is going to be more aggressive in defending itself in the future.

Samsung says it holds key patents that allow, for example, for a person to talk and receive email at the same time.

“We believe Apple is free riding” on such Samsung patents, Lee said.

Apple reacted to Samsung’s claims in the same AP story.

“It is no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging,” said Seoul-based spokesman Steve Park. “This kind of blatant copying is wrong and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”

You can’t argue the fact that all smartphone designs changed in 2007, after the iPhone was released. Companies have been copying Apple’s hardware and software design ever since.


  • http://twitter.com/VGISoftware Daniel Swanson

    Samsung’s resorting to this cheap rhetoric reveals the company’s level of desperation. It’s a feeble attempt to distract attention from the “shortcuts” they took in designing their own products.

  • Anonymous

    Samsung is again blowing hot air out of their backside to detract that they have been blatantly stealing intellectual property from other companies.

    I can only presume it is a Korean thing since most of the Korean companies that produce everything from electronics to motor vehicles tend to take the technology of the rivals and copy or mimick it and then sell as their own.

    • http://twitter.com/ankleskater Ankle Skater

      This type of stereotyping is a slippery slope. Ask yourself what you have to gain by sliding on it.

  • Anonymous

    I suppose we won’t know until the legal issues are settled, but who’s taking a free ride from who?  Is Apple just as guilty as Samsung?  Is it an 80/20 split?  Clearly both sides are infringing upon the other to some degree.  I would hope that Apple has done their homework to the point that they expect to be on the winning side of these law suits.  It never looks good when the first party to throw the punch gets knocked out.

  • http://twitter.com/ankleskater Ankle Skater

    Samsung is definitely guilty of *emulating* Apple design to a certain degree.  Do they do this more flagrantly and more knowingly than other Android phone makers?  Hard to say.

    But we should not forget that Apple is hardly an example of a company who respects IP.  They have been known (and proven) to have usurped trademarked names and other people’s images, only to negotiate and pay for the rights after initial infringement.