Samsung Pays Ericsson $650 Million for Phone Technologies
Samsung is making patent deals left and right.
Ericsson announced that it has signed an agreement with Samsung that ends all ongoing patent related legal disputes. The agreement includes an initial $650 million payment and ongoing royalty payments from Samsung for the term of the new multi-year license agreement.
"We are pleased that we could reach a mutually fair and reasonable agreement with Samsung. We always viewed litigation as a last resort," said Kasim Alfalahi, Chief Intellectual Property Officer at Ericsson. "This agreement allows us to continue to focus on bringing new technology to the global market and provides an incentive to other innovators to share their own ideas."
The cross license agreement covers patents relating to GSM, UMTS, and LTE standards for both networks and handsets, Ericsson revealed. The company currently owns more than 33,000 patents that span across key technology for 2G, 3G and 4G handsets and networks. The company also has over 100 active license agreements.
Samsung originally signed a licensing deal with Ericsson back in 2001, and then renewed it in 2007. However, in 2011 when the licensing deal was up for renewal, both parties were unable to reach an agreement.
Ericsson sued Samsung in 2012, claiming that the Korean smartphone maker infringed on its patents regarding touchscreen functions, network efficiency and clearer voice transmission. Samsung accused Ericsson of demanding substantially higher royalty rates for the same patent portfolio. The new agreement ends the dispute.
"This agreement ends complaints made by both companies against each other before the International Trade Commission (ITC) as well as the lawsuits before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas," reads Ericsson's press release.
The details of the agreement are confidential and will not be disclosed, Ericsson stated. The company also pledged to license its standard-essential patents on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.
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Is Samsung trying to prevent another Apple-type dispute? Samsung just signed a patent agreement with Google, and another five-year agreement back in November with Nokia.
Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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ssalim Change the title.Restore the "back" button to actually go back, not scroll to the next article!Lousy.Reply -
gmarsack @ssalim, It's funny how Tom's site just keeps getting worse. I think developers of this site are actually grade-school students working on a class project.Reply -
brettms71 ReplyChange the title.Restore the "back" button to actually go back, not scroll to the next article!Lousy.
Well i actually like the new scroll down to the next article web design thingy for Toms. Instead of scrolling down, you can always click the back button, and click on the next link you want, or right click on the articles and open in new tab. Gives choices as far as i can see. I do like choice. -
JD88 Reply12557545 said:Yet Samsung won't do that with Apple so it just keeps forking over billions when Apple sues...not too bright.
Apple likely wants enormous sums for licensing its patents. Part of it is probably principle as well. Apple's lawsuits are founded in lies and triviality. Hell they even photoshop courtroom images of Samsung phones to make them look more similar to Apple devices. Apple gets away with murder just because of who they are. Samsung has really only lost one major patent suit to them. My guess is they are actually ahead when it comes to what they would be paying for licensing.
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robochump Samsung is a huge copy machine. Everything Samsung makes are copied from other well known brands and basically just takes the best design ideas and tweak them a little. Tell me one thing Samsung introduced that changed the market? Huge curved screens? No been done before.It is actually good to see Samsung actually making patent deals to look less scummy.@JD88 - Good story. Luckily actual products were shown in the courtroom and decision was made with actual hardware in hand and not pictures alone. Also only photochopped the size and not actual look of devices. No doubt Samsung copied. Samsung even copied Apple's packaging designs....lol!Reply