Samsung Responds to Microsoft's Lawsuit in Court by Claiming they Feared Breaking Antitrust Laws in Respect to Collusion
In August we reported that David Howard – Microsoft's Corporate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, wrote on their legal blog that they didn't take lightly filing a legal action against Samsung, a company with which they enjoyed a long and productive partnership with over the years. Unfortunately, as Howard noted, "even partners sometimes disagree. After spending months trying to resolve our disagreement, Samsung has made clear in a series of letters and discussions that we have a fundamental disagreement as to the meaning of our contract." Late Yesterday Samsung filed their official response to Microsoft's claims in court.
Back in August, Howard detailed that "In September 2013, after Microsoft announced it was acquiring the Nokia Devices and Services business, Samsung began using the acquisition as an excuse to breach its contract. Curiously, Samsung did not ask the court to decide whether the Nokia acquisition invalidated its contract with Microsoft, likely because it knew its position was meritless." Howard added that "We are simply asking the Court to settle our disagreement, and we are confident the contract will be enforced."
Today we find that Samsung is sticking to their original stance with Microsoft. In their court filing made late yesterday they stated that "its collaboration with Microsoft on Windows phones raised antitrust problems once Microsoft completed its acquisition of Nokia's handset business."
Samsung presented certain conditions of the agreement with Microsoft in their filing before the court and then added that "Once Microsoft acquired Nokia, it became a direct hardware competitor with Samsung and they refused to continue sharing some sensitive information. Doing so could have created problems with U.S. antitrust laws. The agreements, now between competitors, invite charges of collusion," Samsung said in the filing.
In a statement, Microsoft said it was "confident that our case is strong" and that it will succeed. Read more about this in Reuters report. Earlier in the month, Microsoft's legal counsel wrote an update to their case with Samsung on their blog.
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