Your analysis of the situation is flawed, because you're treating the situation as if both Apple and its competitors are using the same types of patents, but th

Your analysis of the situation is flawed, because you're treating the situation as if both Apple and its competitors are using the same types of patents, but they're not. The patents that Samsumg and Motorola/Google are so-called FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms) patents, meaning that they cover technology, such as 3G/UMTS and GSM patents, which are essential to the function of a telecommunications device. They are called FRAND patents because, as essential patents, companies holding them are supposed to agree to be 'fair' when licensing them to others. The EU investigation is based on their suspicion that Samsung is abusing its FRAND patents and not following the FRAND guidelines. This is partially because both Samsung and Motorola/Google are demanding a royalty on the price of Apple's final product (i.e., the iPad and iPhone), rather than on the price of the actual baseband component that uses the patent. Samsung is claiming a 2.4% royalty and Motorola/Google is claiming a 2.25% royalty, both of which are pretty clearly unreasonable, likely 'unfair' and possibly in breach of their FRAND commitments. One example thrown about is that if these royalties are accepted and a car manufacturer like BMW installs a UMTS module in one of its cars, it would be obliged to pay 2.4/2.25% of the entire car's value to the patent holder. This clearly makes no sense. Apple, on the other hand, is enforcing design and technology patents that are not essential to the function of a telecommunications device, so they are subject to different rules and have not been submitted under FRAND commitments. Hence they have no EU investigation as they're not under any obligation to license those patents, fairly or otherwise. The difference is that without many FRAND patents you probably can't make a mobile phone. But you can make a mobile phone even if it doesn't look like an iPhone or have a multi-touch screen. With all that said, this constant patent litigation is ruinous and I really hope that this will lead to some much-needed reform in this area.