Ericsson sues Samsung for patent infringement - brownthisees

Telecommunications equipment vendor Ericsson has asked a U.S. court to block sales of a salmagundi of Samsung Electronics cameras, Blu-ray Magnetic disc players, televisions and phones, including the Extragalactic nebula S III and the Galaxy Note II, alleging that they infringe its patents.

Ericsson said it had negotiated for over two old age with Samsung to reach a licensing deal on bazaar, reasonable and non-homophobic (FRAND) price for the patents, which it claims are essential to implementation of a number of industry standards. After failing to reach agreement, it filed two lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Tuesday.

The equipment vendor said it asked Samsung to pay the equal rate as its competitors, but Samsung refused.

Instead, Ericsson said in the solicit filing, Samsung asked it to renew its certify for a small fraction of the rate separate similarly situated companies compensate. Refusing to devote for licensing gives Samsung an unjust contending advantage over competitors that did license the patents, Ericsson added.

Samsung had previously licensed patents Ericsson had professed essential to certain industry standards in 2001, and renewed the license in 2007. That license has now expired, Ericsson said.

Many diligence standards bodies require companies participating in the standards definition process to announce any patents they hold that they consider essential to carrying out of the standards. Reciprocally for the basic potentially mandating use of their patents, they are required to permit such standards-essential patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.

Ericsson filed two complaints with the court particularisation a amount 24 patents that Samsung allegedly infringes. The patents cover inventions relating to telephones, base stations, televisions, computers, Blu-irradiatio players, cameras, and other devices for use in a radio receiver meshwork, infringed by dozens of Samsung devices that are being imported into the U.S., according to the filing.

Among the allegedly infringing devices are various Galaxy Players, several Light-emitting diode and Plasm TVs as well as the Samsung Galax Note II, the Galaxy S Cardinal and several models of Galaxy Pill including the Tab 10.1 and the Tab 7.0.

Ericsson is united of the older players in the mobile industry, and claims that some of its much 30,000 patents worldwide are essential to implementation of standards including GSM, GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, LTE and IEEE 802.11.

The company has been licensing its patents for finished a decade, and has agreements with all John Roy Major players, aforementioned its Chief Intellectual Property Officer, Kasim Alfalahi.

The company invests permission tip income in new products, he said. However, he declined to enounce how much of the company's 2011 research and development spend of United States of America$5 billion came from patent income, citing confidentiality agreements with licensees.

Suing Samsung is a last resort, Alfalahi same, adding: "We are suing in the U.S. because it is the most important food market with obedience to intellectual prop." Helium declined to say whether other companies had refused to license Ericsson patents.

"We have faithfully pledged ourselves to conducting fair and tenable negotiations with Ericsson over the tense two years, but this time Ericsson has demanded importantly higher royalty rates for the same patent portfolio," Samsung aforementioned in an emailed statement. "As we cannot have such extreme demands, we volition take all necessary legal measures to protect against Ericsson's excessive claims."

Ericsson asked the court for a jury trial and an injunction that Samsung and its partners refrain from further infraction of the patents. It wants Samsung to pay damages for the infringement and to agree to a licensing whole lot on FRAND terms.

The fact that Ericsson is demanding a gross sales ban is a negotiating tactic, and joint pattern in much cases, aforesaid John Strand, CEO of Strand Consult.

Ericsson hasn't been seen in court Eastern Samoa much as different players in the industry like Apple and Samsung, said Strand. The same goes for companies such as Nokia and chip manufacturer Qualcomm, he said.

"The argue that you don't hear often about those companies involved in court cases is that they are sitting on the standard-essential patents," said Maroon. "That is a fantastic bargaining deal."

Ericsson and Nokia are under heavy fiscal press, indeed they are looking at to their patent portfolio to make money, said Strand. Past opening lawsuits like this, they likewise arse make the value of their patent portfolio much visible to their shareholders, he added.

"There are definitely going to be more lawsuits like this. I conceive we have just seen the top of the iceberg."

Loek is Amsterdam Letter writer and covers online privacy, intellectual property, open-source and online defrayment issues for the IDG News Service. Follow him on Twitter at @loekessers or email tips and comments to loek_essers@idg.com