Samsung says its multi-touch technology is rubbish, to evade Apple lawyers

Samsung has taken a bit of a beating in the courts these past few months.

Not only has it been forced to pay more than a billion dollars in damages to Apple for infringing on a variety of patents, it has also had new devices outed ahead of schedule, and its sales figures brought up for all to see.

Now, in another legal dispute with Apple (this time in the Dutch courts), the South Korean company has taken the somewhat extreme move of admitting that its multitouch technology isn't as good as arch rival Apple's, in a bid to ensure its smartphones don't get banned in the Netherlands.

According to lawyers working for Samsung, Apple's patented multitouch technology - specifically the part of it that means you can't push multiple on-screen buttons at the same time - is far more sophisticated and easier for developers to use than their own, which in turn means it obviously hasn't copied any of Apple's technology.

If Samsung does manage to win the court case, it'll be another victory to file in the "sort of a win" box, alongside the ruling by UK judge Colin Birss that Samsung tablets didn't infringe on the iPad's design because they're "not as cool".

Gentle ribbing by the judiciary aside, if Samsung does lose the case, it could well have a knock on effect for the South Korean manufacturer's operations in the rest of Europe, with its main distribution hub for the continent being based in the Netherlands.

If Apple wins, the iPhone-maker is calling for a sales ban, as well as a recall of all Galaxy devices that run Android 2.3 or higher, from Dutch resellers and distributors.