 |
| Russia bans the sale of Samsung phones due to legal measures |
According to RIA Novosti, the Moscow Arbitration Court has banned the South Korean company Samsung and its Russian subsidiary from importing, selling and storing 61 smartphones.
According to another RIA report, the court's decision has been appealed and has not yet entered into force.
The lawsuit was filed by a Swiss-based company accusing Samsung Pay of infringing a patent for an electronic payment system registered in Russia.
The list includes phones from 2017 (Samsung Galaxy J5) through the latest Samsung Galaxy Z Flip and Samsung Galaxy Fold.
This is explained in the Supplementary Resolution to the lawsuit brought by Swiss Sqwin SA.
The European company had previously requested that the payment service Samsung Pay be suspended because it violated its right to invent an electronic payment system protected by a Russian patent.
The court agreed to the request. In July, the defendant was prohibited from importing products that support Samsung Bay into the territory of the Russian Federation.
No specific prohibited models were mentioned in the ruling at the time. As a result, Sqwin SA filed an application for lack of reasons for the decision.
The new decision was announced on October 19. The defendant appealed the trial judgment, which is not yet final.
According to the Federal Office of Intellectual Property, the inventor is Viktor Gulchenko, who lives in Switzerland, and the patent holder is Sqwin SA.
Samsung has appealed the court ruling
The patent filing date is April 23, 2019 and the expiration date is December 2, 2013.
Samsung Pay was launched in 2015 and appeared in Russia a year later. Samsung Pay is the third most popular contactless payment system in the country with 17% of citizens.
Google Pay comes first with 32% of users, followed by Apple Pay with 30%.
According to experts, Google Pay and Apple Pay could also be involved in legal disputes, as these systems could also be subject to the drafting of the Sqwin SA patent.