The European Commission has opened a formal investigation into whether the recent patent infringement claims filed by Samsung Electronics are in breach of the Korean company's commitments to licensing its technology as part of mobile industry standards. In 1998, Samsung gave an irrevocable commitment to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to license any standard essential patents relating to European 3G mobile telephony standards on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. The EC's anti-trust investigation will look at whether Samsung abused its dominant position on the mobile market, violated the commitment to the ETSI and distorted competition by seeking injunctions against other device makers for alleged violations of its patent rights. Samsung is involved in patent infringement lawsuits with Apple in a number of EU countries. Apple disclosed last year in one case that Samsung was the subject of an EC investigation, and the EC was thought to have requested information from both firms. Samsung said then that it was cooperating with the EU request and "has at all times remained committed to fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing terms for our wireless standards-related patents".
