Even though Samsung (005930) won an important victory against Apple (AAPL) in the United States this week, the company has apparently decided to abandon some of its efforts on the European front. The Verge reports that Samsung “will drop its lawsuits against Apple for standards-essential patent infringement in Germany, the U.K., France, Italy and the Netherlands.” A Samsung spokesperson told The Verge that the company’s motives for dropping the suits were largely (and implausibly) altruistic and done “in the interest of protecting consumer choice” since “we strongly believe it is better when companies compete fairly in the marketplace, rather than in court.” In reality, The Verge notes that Samsung has been under investigation by European officials all year over allegations that it didn’t license its standard essential patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.

Prior to joining BGR as News Editor, Brad Reed spent five years covering the wireless industry for Network World. His first smartphone was a BlackBerry but he has since become a loyal Android user.