Samsung has today announced it will drop its injunction requests against Apple for standards-essential patent infringement in Germany, the UK, France, Italy and the Netherlands. In a statement given to The Verge, the manufacturer said:

"Samsung remains committed to licensing our technologies on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, and we strongly believe it is better when companies compete fairly in the marketplace, rather than in court. In this spirit, Samsung has decided to withdraw our injunction requests against Apple on the basis of our standard essential patents pending in European courts, in the interest of protecting consumer choice."

Back in January, the European Commission said it would investigate whether or not Samsung had broken EU antitrust laws in relation the licensing of standards-essential patents. Under EU law, companies must license such patents on a fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) basis. Samsung is also being investigated in its native Korea after Apple complained it was abusing its wireless patents. It's not clear if today's announcement signifies an agreement between the two companies or if Samsung was simply backed into a corner. The news does not relate to the US, where litigation continues.

Update: we have altered the headline on this story to accurately reflect Samsung's announcement.

Hyunhu Jang contributed to this report.