T-Mobile sides with Samsung's defense in Apple patent suit
T-Mobile is the second mobile carrier this week to oppose Apple's bid to ban a range of Samsung's phones, in the midst of a long-running patent fight between the two companies.
The phone giant joins Verizon, which earlier this week sided with Samsung to prevent a slow adoption rate on its new high-speed 4G network. In a run-up to the holiday season, T-Mobile's reasons focus on not having key 4G-compatible devices to be banned in time for the Christmas period.
The company's advertising campaigns already heavily feature the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy S 4G smartphone. The court filing shows a stocked inventory of Samsung devices, and T-Mobile warns that "investments cannot be recouped easily".
T-Mobile warns that "unnecessarily harm" its business operations, citing reasons similar to that of Verizon, stating that the end consumer would ultimately suffer if Apple were to win an injunction against Samsung smartphones.
Other mobile networks have yet to weigh in on the case, but after Verizon -- the largest network in the U.S., and now T-Mobile -- the fourth largest, it should come as no surprise that others including Sprint and AT&T, which also sell Samsung devices, could add their grievances to the pot.
Apple sued Samsung in April, asking the International Trade Commission to ban sales of its devices in the United States, citing reasons that Samsung copied the design of its iPad and iPhone design. Samsung rebutted the claims, and alleged that Apple infringed patents of its own in a counter-suit.
Apple and Samsung continue to fight over hardware patents belonging to each other, leading to a series of lawsuits in over twenty countries to date.
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