Motorola Mobility, Samsung Escape EU Fines in Apple Clash

Motorola Mobility and Samsung Electronics avoided fines as European Union antitrust regulators said “patent wars” with Apple shouldn’t allow consumers to get caught in the crossfire.

Motorola Mobility, which Google is selling to Lenovo Group, broke EU antitrust law when it sought and enforced a German legal injunction against Apple over patents for technology for industry-standard products such as mobile phones, the European Commission said. Samsung and the EU finalized a settlement that ends a similar antitrust probe.

Joaquin Almunia, the EU’s competition chief, said the EU’s decisions provide “legal clarity on the circumstances in which injunctions to enforce standard essential patents can be anti-competitive.”

The EU is cracking down on patent abuses as Motorola Mobility, Microsoft, Apple and Samsung trade victories in courts across the world on intellectual property. Industry-standard technology helps ensure products such as mobile-phone antennas and global-positioning system software can operate together when made by different manufacturers.