Samsung offered remedies that may settle a European Union probe over whether it breached antitrust rules through its use of patent lawsuits against rival Apple. EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a speech in New York that Samsung had agreed to propose commitments that will be market tested.

She hopes that will end the whole matter, although details of the offer were not revealed. Samsung attempted to settle with the European Commission earlier but the antitrust regulator had said it wanted more concessions. Apple and Samsung are locked in patent disputes in at least 10 countries after Jobs’ Mob declared a patent fatwa against Samsung for copying the designs it copied from other people.

Samsung responded with a few defence patents, which backfired when the Commission filed charges against it last year. The Commission also charged Google's Motorola Mobility with a similar anti-competitive offense in May. It is hoped that the Samsung case may help bring clarity to technology patents known as standard-essential patents, or SEPs, across the industry in the EU.