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Ericsson reaches patent deal with Samsung

by on27 January 2014



This is the way it is going to go

Ericsson and Samsung Electronics Co have buried the hatchet in a deal to end all patent-related legal disputes.

Ericsson said on Monday the agreement included an initial payment and royalty payments from Samsung for the term of the multi-year license agreement and would affect Ericsson's operating cash flow at the beginning of 2014. Ericsson said the settlement would affect its fourth quarter sales by $652 million and net income by $512 million.

Ericsson's Chief Intellectual Property Officer Kasim Alfalahi said that the deal allowed his company to focus on bringing new technology to the global market and provides an incentive to other innovators to share their own ideas. Practically though this means that the big companies are signing deals with each other not to sue for patent infringement. This will mean that they will be safe from each other and be able to safely patent troll anyone else who comes onto the market.

A similar deal was hatched out between Google and Samsung on Sunday. Those two are frequently involved in patent infringement lawsuits but not against each other have reached a global patent cross-licensing agreement. The deal covers patents currently owned by the companies, as well as any filed in the next 10 years, the companies said in a release. Financial terms were not disclosed.

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