Samsung To Alter Smartphones To Skirt E.U. BanSamsung To Alter Smartphones To Skirt E.U. Ban

Samsung hopes that by altering the software on its smartphones it can get around a sales ban resulting from patent litigation by Apple.

Apple won a preliminary injunction against Samsung in the Netherlands in September that prevents Samsung from importing a handful of its Galaxy Android smartphones in several European Union countries. Samsung has challenged the litigation, but in the meantime thinks that it has found a way to lift the ban so it can resume sales of the impacted phones.

"Some of the technologies that Apple claimed violated their patents can be easily modified with alternative technologies," said Samsung Electronics spokesman James Chung, speaking to the Wall Street Journal.

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Samsung did not provide details on how its software will be altered. Samsung also indicated that it will try to employ a similar methodology in other markets where it and Apple are tangling over smartphone patents.

Late last month, Samsung hit Apple with four lawsuits, also in the Netherlands. Samsung's suits aim to prevent Apple from selling the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 1, and iPad 2 in the Netherlands. Samsung asked for a preliminary injunction, and its complaints were heard in court, though no immediate decision was rendered.

"We'll be pursuing our rights for this in a more aggressive way from now on," Lee Younghee, head of global marketing for mobile communications, in an interview with the Associated Press.

This particular series of complaints centers on the use of standards-essential 3G wireless technology in Apple's products. Standards-essential patents or technology are agreed upon internationally and generally accepted as standards. Nokia has used this type of patent attack against Apple, too.

Samsung also hopes to prevent Apple from launching the iPhone 4S--at least, in its home market of Korea. An unnamed Samsung executive said, "For as long as Apple does not drop mobile telecommunications functions, it would be impossible for it to sell its i-branded products without using our patents," said the exec. "We will stick to a strong stance against Apple during the lingering legal fights."

The two companies have locked horns over smartphone and tablet patents and design issues all around the world. Apple started the patent war when it filed litigation against Samsung in the United States in April. Samsung responded. The two companies have gone tit-for-tat in the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, Korea, Japan, and Australia.