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UPDATE: EU: Requested Apple, Samsung Mobile Patent Information
10:46a ET November 4, 2011 (Dow Jones)
UPDATE: EU: Requested Apple, Samsung Mobile Patent Information

By Frances Robinson and Alessandro Torello
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
BRUSSELS (Dow Jones)--The European Commission has requested information on patents from tech giants Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co. (005930.SE) which could lead to the opening of legal proceedings in a highly-contentious area of patent law.
"The Commission has sent requests for information to Apple and Samsung concerning the enforcement of standards-essential patents in the mobile telephony sector," the European Union's antitrust body said Friday. "Such requests for information are standard procedure in antitrust investigations to allow the Commission to establish the relevant facts in a case."
Standards-essential patents are patents which cover an area which is crucial to compliance with an industry standard, such as 3G or WiFi. Unlike regular patents, they must be licensed on a fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory basis--known as FRAND. This means infringement cannot lead to injunctions on use, or extraordinarily high royalty payments.
They are just the latest aspect of a global battle between Samsung and Apple over patents for smartphones and tablet computers. In the Netherlands last month, Samsung lost a case saying that Apple should pay Samsung royalties for 3G transmission technology used in iPhones and iPads. And back in April, Apple sued Samsung in California claiming its smartphones and Galaxy tablets had "slavishly" copied their devices.
Samsung said it is working with the EU's antitrust authorities.
"Samsung has at all times remained committed to fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing terms for our wireless standards-related patents," Samsung Spokesman Jason Kim said. "We have received a request for information from the European Commission and are cooperating fully."
Apple didn't immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
The commission said the request is "standard procedure" to establish the facts. If it finds grounds for investigation, it can open formal proceedings. Patents are currently high on the radar of antitrust regulators; Google Inc. (GOOG) is acquiring Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI) to get the latter's patents in order to protect smartphones using its Android software from legal challenges.
"The fundamental question of patent is whether it really represents a monopoly; it's a question which has been struggled with since medieval times," said Alexander I. Poltorak, Chief Executive of General Patent Corporation (GPC), an intellectual property firm. "And the one exception to that rule is standard-essential patent, where patent law becomes intertwined with antitrust law."
"Everybody's looking for standard-essential patents," the former Columbia University School of Business lecturer said, noting the recent bidding war for Nortel Networks' patents, which reached $4.5 billion. "They think they're the holy grail."
-By Frances Robinson, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]