Ericsson makes more wireless network equipment than any other company. Samsung is one of the most recognizable names in smartphones and they make many of the most popular Android devices. Well, the two companies are going to battle, with Ericsson launching a patent suit against Samsung Electronics.
Samsung and Ericsson failed to extend the licensing agreement after years of negotiations, and that has led to this suit. Ericsson is filing this suit in US federal court in the Eastern District of Texas. The judge there has a reputation of siding with patent holder, which in this case, is Ericsson. Ericsson claims it had offered to extend the licensing agreement with Samsung using FRAND terms.
Samsung claims that Ericsson is charging prohibitively high licensing fees. In a statement, Samsung said, “[Ericsson] demanded prohibitively higher royalty rates to renew the same patent portfolio. As we cannot accept such extreme demands, we will take all necessary legal measures to protect against Ericsson’s excessive claims.” It appears as if the battle between these two could go on for a while.
Ericsson maintains that Samsung is refusing to pay the FRAND rate that its competitors are paying for the same patents. In 2011, Ericsson reportedly made $937 million from licensing its patents to other companies. That’s a whole lot of money. At this point, we are unsure of when this case will go to court. As always, we will keep you posted.
[via SlashGear]
