Ericsson-Sought Import Ban Would Harm US Consumers, Says Samsung

The import ban Ericsson seeks at the International Trade Commission against Samsung smart devices for allegedly infringing four wireless connectivity patents (see 2101080043) would “harm health and welfare, competitive conditions, and ultimately consumers in the United States,” Samsung commented (login required), as posted Tuesday in docket 337-3520. Though Ericsson “glibly assures” the ITC that its licensees “would be able to supply smartphones, tablets and smart TVs to backfill the vacuum its requested remedial orders would create, its failure to identify its alleged licensees, other than Apple (which does not produce devices for the Android ecosystem), makes it difficult to assess such a claim,” said Samsung. Ericsson “has failed to provide any factual support for its assertions,” it said. “Samsung cannot assess the manufacturing capacity of Ericsson’s unidentified alleged licensees, nor can Samsung determine whether these licensees offer competing products across the broad range of consumer electronic devices implicated by this investigation.” Samsung is the U.S. market leader in Android smartphones, tablets and smart TVs, it said. Apple devices “are not suitable replacements,” it said. Suppliers of Android and other operating systems “that currently enjoy minimal U.S. market share cannot replace the market leader in a commercially reasonable time,” it said. Ericsson didn’t comment Wednesday.