This is just another example of Apple suffering from its own actions. It was all excited about how H.264 was a FRAND standard, ignoring it's own previous statements about how such standards could lead to dominant players abusing other parties. But it had a market lead and a business model that fitted with the status quo so it was full speed ahead. And now the shoe is on the other foot.
From Apple's previous statement on this matter:
"While the current draft patent policy does state a “preference” for royalty-free standards, the ready availability of a RAND option presents too easy an alternative for owners of intellectual property who may seek to use the standardization process to control access to fundamental Web standards. A mandatory royalty-free requirement for all adopted standards will avoid this result."
>This is just another example of Apple suffering from it's own actions. It was all excited about how H.264 was a FRAND standard, ignoring it's own previous statements about how such standards could lead to dominant players abusing other parties.
If Samsung has granted a license(either with royalties or royalty-free) to everyone else besides Apple, they aren't following the FRAND standard. If they have, and this is a result of negotiations falling apart(which is highly unlikely, considering that these are "essential to the reliable functioning of telecom networks and devices", and the iPhone 1 presumably infringes on these), then Samsung has a case.
Otherwise, Samsung may be violating agreements that they have with the standards agencies. This will be pretty interesting how it plays out.
The iPhone 1 won't, it's to do with CDMA which is only the iPhone 4 had as I understand it. The iPhone 4 with CDMA was also only available in the US though and that area is already under litigation.
From Apple's previous statement on this matter: "While the current draft patent policy does state a “preference” for royalty-free standards, the ready availability of a RAND option presents too easy an alternative for owners of intellectual property who may seek to use the standardization process to control access to fundamental Web standards. A mandatory royalty-free requirement for all adopted standards will avoid this result."