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Apple and Samsung Give Peace a Chance

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The biggest patent battle in the tech industry has come to an end-- Apple and Samsung resolve the last of a string of lawsuits spanning 4 continents, Bloomberg reports. The terms behind the agreement are not available.

Samsung AppleThe legal disputes started in 2011, after the late Steve Jobs vowed to go "thermonuclear" on Android-based iPhone rivals. The ensuing Smartphone War involved every major industry player, but the harshest battles involved Samsung. Apple insisted the S. Korean giant "slavishly" copied the iPhone design, while at one point a Samsung lawyer described Apple as a "jihadist."

In the end, the two companies probably got tired of paying outside lawyers. They also changed in business and smartphone models-- Apple now makes both more expensive and cheaper iPhone models, while Samsung offers a dizzying array of smartphones suiting all pockets. They also have other issues to worry about, from Chinese vendors nipping into smartphone market that was once a duopoly to, in the case of Apple, a bigger legal dispute with chip maker Qualcomm.

“What Apple/Samsung showed is that litigation is not the ideal way to solve these fights,” Rutgers Law School professor Michael Carrier tells Bloomberg. “At the end of the day, I’m not sure Apple would have said this was worth it. It was expensive litigation that went on for years, and I’m not sure what they got out of it.”

That said, Apple and Samsung will remain rivals for a long, long time-- after all, both companies are working on a number of emerging technologies, including self-driving cars, AR glasses, smart speakers and AI.

Go Apple, Samsung Declare Peace in Biggest Modern Tech Patent Fight (Bloomberg)