Professor Mark Lemley spoke with The Recorder's Julia Love about the recent Apple/Samsung settlement which has halted litigation overseas, and why it won't prevent them from "starting up litigation again in the future." 

Apple and Samsung agreed to lay down their arms in nine countries overseas where they had litigation pending, taking another step in the slow de-escalation of their long-running patent war.

In a joint statement, the bitter smartphone rivals said that they would drop all claims against each other abroad, halting litigation in South Korea, Japan, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the U.K.

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"This looks more like a ceasefire than an actual peace treaty," said Durie Tangri partner Mark Lemley. "There's nothing that prevents these parties from starting up litigation again in the future, except the fact that maybe they're tired and they've both spent a lot of money."

The shape of the pact suggests that Apple and Samsung disagree about how the U.S. litigation will turn out on appeal, said Brian Love, an assistant professor at the University of Santa Clara School of Law. Samsung has appealed both of the parties' U.S. cases, which yielded more than $1 billion in damages for Apple.

"They may have, essentially, agreed to wait and see who's right," Love said.

Apple and Samsung waged their marquee patent battles before U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose. Their first trial in August 2012 ended in a $1.05 billion award to Apple, which was later scaled back to $930 million after a damages retrial last year. The parties reunited in Koh's courtroom this spring for a trial that yielded $119 million for Apple, a fraction of the $2.2 billion sought by the Cupertino-based company.

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That deal also lacked a licensing component, suggesting that Apple may still be wary of opening up its technology, Lemley said. Licenses may set a bar for damages awards in other cases, he noted. And they can also trickle down the supply chain.

"One possible motivation could be that Apple is worried about whether parties who are upstream or downstream would be able to claim protection with that license," he said.